27.07.2020, Damascus.
Russian and Turkish military forces conducted joint patrols in the area near the Syrian city of Ain al-Arab (Kobane) on July 27, a Rossa Primavera News Agency’s source in Syria informed.
During the routine procedure, the motorized parol came across an obstacle on route in the province of Aleppo. It turned out that local residents piled a heap of stones in the middle of the roadway.
Russian military police officers together with their Turkish colleagues tried to convince local residents to dismantle the barricade and let the convoy pass, but they refused.
Then the Russian and Turkish soldiers dismantled the blockage themselves and proceeded further along the route. Local residents responded by throwing stones at passing vehicles.
On July 14, an attack on joint Russian-Turkish patrol took place in the province of Idlib. A suicide bomber committed it using a car bomb.
As a result of the explosion, three Russian military policemen were injured.
Background
On October 9, 2019, Turkey launched the Operation Peace Spring against the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northern Syria east of the Euphrates River. Ankara planned an operation of creating a 30-40 km buffer zone along the entire length of the Syrian-Turkish border east of the Euphrates river to accommodate those Syrian refugees who ended up on the Turkish territory during the years of the conflict in Syria.
The Turkish operation caused a surge of diplomatic activity. On October 17, US Vice President Mike Pence and Head of the State Department Mike Pompeo flew into Ankara. The parties agreed to a ceasefire for 120 hours. Then, on October 22, Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Sochi and during negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a 150 hours ceasefire agreement was reached in order to withdraw Kurdish armed groups from the border area, which was Turkey’s demand.
In addition, the parties agreed to conduct joint Russian-Turkish patrols to maintain the ceasefire in the area of the Operation Peace Spring.
Starting November 1, 2019, Russian military police and Turkish army have been conducting regular joint military patrols in the provinces of Raqqa, Hasakah and Qamishli bordering Turkey, in accordance with the agreements reached earlier.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
