Erdogan, Rouhan, Putin meet in Russia to discuss this issue

Russian President Vladimir Putin will host President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhan in the Black Sea resort town after a series of trilateral political and military meetings over Syria.

“We will hold very important meetings in Soci dealing with the future of our region. Developments in Syria and Iraq that concern us force us to create mechanisms to generate our solutions,” said Erdogan.

“Mechanism” in which he was referring is the Astana Process, which has secured a lasting ceasefire between the Syrian Army and moderate opposition groups since the beginning of 2017.

Ankara, Moscow and Tehran have been declared a “galant of the peace process and have recently agreed to create de-escalation zones in various parts of the war-torn country, reports “Hurriyet Daily News”, the Periscope broadcast.

“Although we still have disagreements on certain issues, the results we have produced as a result of our close co-operation with Russia are very important,” said Erdogan, expressing Ankara's satisfaction over Turkey's increased “sensitivity respect in the Syrian field”.

The three-way meeting in Soci follows a bilateral meeting between Erdogan and Putin on 13 November, in which the two leaders voiced the verbal agreement on the need to launch means for a political solution in Syria. The two leaders agreed to hold a trilateral meeting in Soci with Iran's participation during that meeting.

On November 19th, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevluut Cavuşoglu and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif gathered in Antalya for initial talks about how to proceed for a political solution.

During the meeting Cavuşoğlu stressed the importance of drafting a new Syrian constitution with the participation of moderate opposition groups, but without the Kurdish Democratic Union of Kurds Party (PYD), which Ankara considers a terrorist organisation due to its ties with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Turkey has repeatedly stated that it will not participate in any attempt to secure a political solution to the Syrian question if the PYD is also present.

Meanwhile, the top soldiers of the three contestants met in Soci on 21 November to review continued joint efforts to create de-escalation areas in Idlib and elsewhere as part of the Astana process.

Turkish Chief of General Staff Hulus Akar, Russia's Chief of General Staff Valerry Gerasimov and Iranian Chief of General Staff Mohammed Bagheri gathered together in Sochi.

The three expected to discuss continuing efforts to cement the ceasefire in Syria, particularly in rebel-dominated Idlib, where Turkey is tasked with monitoring a ceasefire through observation points. Russia is monitoring it from abroad, under the Astana agreement.

So far Turkey has created two survey points in Idlib and wants the Russian and Iranian contribution to creating another 10.

Three top soldiers have agreed to fully clean Syria of militants from the al-Novera Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Another important issue for Ankara is the removal of the PYD's armed arm, the People's Protection Units (YPG), from Africa, a region in northern Syria bordering Turkey.

President Erdogan has repeatedly stressed that the YPG poses a national threat to Turkey, which will take all necessary steps.

Russia still has a military deployment in Africa, and Erdogan has urged Putin to withdraw from the region so that Turkey can take its measures to secure its borders. Turkey recently increased its military deployment near Africa.

In his speech to parliament on 21 November, Erdogan stressed that situations in Iraq and Syria remain serious.

Not even an inch of progress is made for the peace and comfort of each country. In many countries one terrorist organization has been replaced by another. Al-Assad regime, which has the blood of hundreds of thousands of citizens, remains in place,” he said./Persycopi/