Erdogan-Putin summit highlights differences over Syria
Ankara gets little out of Moscow regarding its plans for northern Syria.
It may be too harsh to say that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan returned empty-handed from his summit in Moscow this week with President Vladimir Putin. On the plus side, there was much talk about having agreed to increase the already burgeoning economic cooperation.
Erdogan, nevertheless, appears not to have gotten much out of this summit with regard to Turkey’s expectations in Syria. He had traveled to Moscow to discuss, as his main priority, northern Syria in the wake of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out US forces from the area.
Erdogan hoped to not only get a green light for a cross-border Turkish operation east of the Euphrates against the US-backed People's Protection Units (YPG) — which Ankara considers a terrorist organization — but to also seek support for a Turkish security zone in the region.
It was clear from the start, though, that the increasingly volatile situation in Idlib — where Turkish forces are also deployed under an agreement between Ankara, Moscow and Tehran — would be Putin’s priority.
