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Turkey vows not to quit army post surrounded in Syria
BEIRUT, Aug 23, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said
Friday that Turkish troops will not quit a military observation post in
northwestern Syria where they are surrounded by government forces.
“We are there, not because we can’t leave but because we don’t want to
leave,” he told a news conference in Lebanon, denying that Turkish troops had
been “cut off” by a government advance into the jihadist-ruled Idlib region.
Earlier, Syrian regime forces overran a string of towns and villages in
the north of Hama province, including the town of Morek, where the Turkish
observation post is located, Syria’s state news agency SANA said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that “regime
forces have surrounded the Turkish observation post in Morek” after the
advance.
Cavusoglu acknowledged that “there are clashes in the Idlib region”.
“Regime forces are conducting activities around our observation post,” he
said , adding that the issue was being discussed with Damascus allies Russia
and Iran.
But “our observation point there is not cut-off and nobody can isolate our
forces and our soldiers,” he added.
Rebel-backer Turkey has carried out two cross-border offensives into
Syria, where its forces have been deployed for nearly two years.
The observation post in Morek is one of 12 the Turkish army set up along
the front line between government forces and the jihadists and their rebel
allies last year.
The troops’ mission was to oversee the establishment of a buffer zone
agreed by Ankara and Moscow in September.
But the jihadists failed to pull back from the zone as agreed and in
April, government and Russian forces resumed intense bombardment of the
region.
“The regime’s forces have deployed in Morek and throughout the northern
part of Hama province, without attacking the observation post,” Observatory
head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
“For the (Turkish) soldiers there is no way out” except through
territories now held by the regime and its Russian ally, according to the
Observatory.
The Idlib region, which sits on the Turkish border, is the last major
stronghold of opposition to the Russia-backed Syrian government.
It has been under government assault since late April.
Around 900 civilians have been killed, according to the Observatory.
More than 400,000 people have been displaced, says the United Nations.
The war in Syria has killed more than 370,000 people since it started with
the brutal suppression of anti-government protests in 2011.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1916HRS