“Russia is a consistent peacemaker in the region”: a convoy of military men from Russia arrives at the border of Turkey and Syria

A convoy of Russian military police arrived in the Syrian city of Kobani, located near the border of Syria and Turkey.

“A convoy of Russian military police arrived in the Syrian village of Kobani, located in the Syrian-Turkish border,” the ministry said.

According to the ministry, Russian military police units will help ensure public safety and the rule of law, as well as conduct patrols in designated areas.

In addition, Russian experts will help withdraw units of Kurdish self-defense units and their weapons 30 km from the Syrian-Turkish border.

To date, the Russian military has held a meeting with the Kobani administration, where a discussion of the details of joint work took place.

“The Russian military police held a meeting with representatives of the local administration, discussed issues related to the organization of cooperation in fulfilling the tasks,” the Ministry of Defense specified.

In addition to this, the agency published a map of the implementation of the agreement with Turkey on Syria. From these materials it follows that on the Syrian-Turkish border will be located 15 posts of the border service of Syria.

• © Press Service of the Ministry of Defense

The day before, almost six-hour talks were held in Sochi by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The central theme of the dialogue between the two heads of state was the situation in Syria.

Following the meeting, Putin and Erdogan signed a memorandum of understanding, consisting of ten points. As the Russian leader noted, we are talking about decisions that "are very important, if not fateful."

According to the head of the Russian state, the agreements reached will allow "resolving a rather acute situation that has developed today on the Syrian-Turkish border." At the same time, Putin emphasized that Syria should be freed from a foreign military presence and the country's integrity should be maintained.

One of the paragraphs of the memorandum says that on October 23, from 12:00 on the Syrian side of the Syrian-Turkish border, units of the Russian military police and the Syrian border service are being introduced outside the Turkish operation "Source of Peace".

Recall, on October 9, Ankara embarked on a new, third in a row military operation, called the “Source of Peace”. As part of the operation, Turkey intends to liquidate the Kurdish People’s Self-Defense Units (YPG) as part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDS), which Ankara considers these formations to be terrorist.

Another task of the “Source of Peace” is to create a security zone in the north of Syria, where Turkey intends to resettle Syrian refugees who have found themselves on its territory.

As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov previously explained, Operation Source of Peace in northern Syria is being halted.

“It is being stopped, and everything will depend on how the agreements are implemented, including on the withdrawal of weapons and the withdrawal of forces and means of the Kurdish units in question, the so-called CBS,” the Russian diplomat said.

Peacekeeping role of Russia

Commenting on new steps towards a settlement in Syria, Igor Shatrov, deputy director of the National Institute for the Development of Modern Ideology, noted the scale of Russia's peacekeeping role in the region.

“I think that yesterday’s unprecedented in terms of duration and results negotiations between Putin and Erdogan confirmed to the whole world that Russia is a consistent peacemaker in the Middle East region, and this peacekeeping mission is probably unique in the Syrian issue. Russia is the only country that can communicate with all parties to the conflict ... I don’t remember such prevention methods as the conflict like yesterday, ”the expert said in an interview with RT.

Now we should expect stabilization of the situation in the region and a gradual withdrawal of Turkish units from the territory of Syria, Shatrov is sure.

“The next stage, I think, we will see the movement, but civilized, but not chaotic, of those refugees who have been in Turkey for several years,” the analyst suggested.

He also noted that previous agreements between Turkey and the United States have lost their meaning.

“The agreements between Ankara and Washington ended practically at the previous midnight, in the future, only the threats from the United States were behind these agreements,” the expert explained.

Corresponding Member of the Academy of Military Sciences, political scientist Sergei Sudakov believes that Russia is gradually approving and retaining the status of a “world referee,” which preserves the foundations of international law. In his reasoning, he turned to the situation of opposition of the USA and Turkey.

Washington previously sent Ankara a letter in which Trump urges the leader of the republic not to take responsibility for the deaths of thousands of people. In addition, he warned of his readiness to destroy the Turkish economy.

“If we now consider the controversy that arose between the US and Turkey, it was more like not a legal justification of the situation, but not some sort of disassembly. First, an ugly letter, then a rollback from it, but now, it turns out that certain security zones have been identified, there is a clear understanding of what will happen to the Kurds, ”the expert said in an interview with RT.

According to Sudakov, in the current situation, Russia has shown that it is a real center of power, to which they listen more to other countries.

“Yesterday’s event is in many ways the formation of centers of power. Now the fundamental question is: when will peace come? Of course, after the negotiations it will not be possible to put an end to it, but important steps were taken yesterday, steps towards understanding that Erdogan promised Putin that the military operation would not continue and that legal settlement systems would be found, ”the expert concluded.