By Gozde Bayar
ANKARA (AA) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has lost his reputation in Turkey after the recent Syrian regime shelling in Idlib de-escalation zone which left seven Turkish soldiers and one contractor working for the Turkish military martyred and several others wounded, an expert on international relations said on Thursday.
“First, Putin lost reputation in Turkey. And second, it looks like Bashar al-Assad disregards Putin. It turns out Putin is weak, [he] cannot even exert his authority over Assad,” Talat Cetin, a representative of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), said at a panel organized by Ankara-based Institute of Strategic Thinking (SDE).
Highlighting the importance of Turkish-Russian relations in the region, which he called “the Eastern Alliance”, Cetin said ruining the Turkish-Russian alliance would serve the interests of the West.
“We should patiently protect the Eastern alliance,” he added.
Cetin added that Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Putin protect the “dignity and honor” of the East.
He said the U.S. State Department grasped the opportunity by immediately extending condolences to Turkey after the Idlib attack.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Secretary of State offered condolences over loss of lives of Turkish troops in the attack and reiterated Washington's support amid clashes with regime forces.
“[Regime’s] operations in Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta deteriorated the situation in Idlib. Civilians flooded to Idlib rather than moving to the south,” said Mithat Isik, defense and security expert at SDE.
Stressing that the population in Idlib climbed up to four million, he said the refugee problem would be a “matter of survival” for Turkey.
Located in northwestern Syria next to Turkey’s borderline, Idlib has been a fortress for opposition forces and anti-regime armed groups since the eruption of the bloody civil war in 2011.
More than 1.5 million Syrians have moved near the Turkish border due to intense attacks by the regime forces and its allies in Idlib over the past year.
Since the eruption of the bloody civil war in Syria in 2011, Turkey has taken in some 3.7 million Syrians who fled their country, making it the world’s top refugee-hosting country.
Ihsan Basbozkurt, a retired Turkish military officer, highlighted the “issue of trust” between Russia and Turkey.
“We do not have a common understanding with Russia. We achieved the common understanding on the table but not on the field,” he stressed.
Regarding the Astana and Sochi agreements, he said the agreements became “null” and a de-escalation zone is a “dream.”
Turkey, Russia, and Iran held meetings in Astana city of Kazakhstan in 2017 and announced that Idlib and neighboring cities, Eastern Ghouta region of capital Damascus and southern regions, namely Daraa and Quneitra cities, would be de-escalation zones.
But the Assad regime and Iranian-backed terror groups launched attacks in violation of the agreements and, thanks to Russian air support, gained control of all these territories with the exception of Idlib city.
The aggression continued after Sept. 17, 2018 when Turkey and Russia held Sochi meetings in a bid to halt attacks.
