Let us set the record straight: Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan emerged triumphant from his meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The Sept. 17 meeting in Russia’s Black Sea city of Sochi was the third time the two leaders met in three weeks.
Erdogan got what he wanted concerning Idlib: no offensive to the province where Turkey’s Syrian allies have regrouped alongside Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate.
In Sochi, Erdogan almost completely reversed the humiliation he experienced during the Tehran summit the first week of September. During that live, televised meeting with Putin, Erdogan demanded a cease-fire to prevent an imminent Russian-Syrian offensive to retake Idlib for Bashar al-Assad’s regime. But Putin sarcastically rebuffed the Turkish leader, and the summit host, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, seemed to side with his Russian counterpart.
Putin and Erdogan displayed an unusual warmth at the end of their two-hour meeting on Sept. 17. The two men smiled, and Erdogan affectionately squeezed Putin's right hand between his own. Following the meeting, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced there would be no new military operation against Idlib by Syrian government forces and their allies.
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