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Putin can’t save Erdogan from Idlib quagmire

The Russian president ultimately sees Bashar al-Assad as the solution to Turkey’s border crisis, but is playing a long game.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speak during their meeting on the sidelines of the MAKS-2019 International Aviation and Space Salon in Zhukovsky outside Moscow, Russia, August  27, 2019. Maxim Shipenkov/Pool via REUTERS - RC147D99BA60

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not seem to be inclined toward introspection and second thoughts, but Syria may eventually be an exception. He took up the cause against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2011, backing the protesters and opposition forces, including jihadist outliers, as well as allowing a "two-way jihadist highway," which contributed to the expansion of the Islamic State and the tens of thousands of terrorists now based in Idlib.

Talk about a crisis on your southern border. Erdogan fears that he could face a massive exodus of refugees from Idlib because of the fighting there. Ayla Jean Yackley reports that Turkey “is cracking down on unregistered migrants, forcing them back to camps along the border if they do not have papers. It denies reports that it has forcibly deported hundreds or thousands back to Idlib, where they face possible violence or recrimination. But officials at the Bab al-Hawa border gate were quoted as saying Turkey had expelled 8,901 Syrians in August.”

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