After the number of Turkish military personnel killed in Idlib climbed to 13 earlier this month, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unequivocally declared that Turkey would attack Syrian forces anywhere in Syria if another soldier were hurt.
Erdogan had already issued an ultimatum to Syria to withdraw to the lines set in the Sochi memorandum, which he signed with Russian President Vladimir Putin in September 2018. If not, Turkey would unleash a war against the Syrian army to oblige it to pull back. The International Crisis Group (ICG), a transnational organization committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflicts, was alarmed. In a report titled “The eleventh hour for Idlib,” it suggested that Damascus and its Russian backers should immediately conclude a cease-fire with rebel forces enjoying robust Turkish military support. For ICG, “Erdogan’s words were no idle chatter.”
But “Damascus and its Russian backers” seemed to have a different assessment. For them, Erdogan’s words did sound like an idle chatter.
On Feb. 22, Turkey lost its 16th soldier in Idlib, following the killing of two Turkish soldiers Feb. 20 in a Russian airstrike that left many others wounded. The latest loss coincided with the killing of high-ranked Turkish officers in Libya by Khalifa Hifter’s forces, which are collaborating the Russian Wagner group against the Erdogan-backed Tripoli regime led by Fayez al-Sarraj.
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