Syria’s Ain Issa tops Russian-Turkish meeting agenda in Sochi

HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – The Syrian city of Ain Issa sits at the top of the agenda for the upcoming Tuesday meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in the Russian city of Sochi.

The town of Ain Issa has been witnessing almost continuous Turkish artillery shelling, daily clashes, and infiltration attempts by Turkish-backed armed opposition groups for six weeks.

Asharq al-Awsat newspaper quoted a senior source in the Turkish Defense Ministry who stated that Ankara will take advantage of the meeting to demand the withdrawal of the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) from the region.

The source expressed Turkey’s readiness to take any necessary step to achieve this, according to Asharq al-Awsat.

Turkey signed two separate ceasefire agreements with Russia and the US in October 2019 after conducting a military operation against Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tel Abyad (Gire Spi), north of Raqqa.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) withdrew its fighters from a 32 km-deep border region with Turkey in mid-October 2019 after a Russian-Turkish agreement.

The second most important provisions of the agreement stipulated a ceasefire between Turkish forces and the SDF, but the vicinity of Ain Issa and Tel Tamr, northeastern Syria, are still witnessing almost daily bombardments.

A few days ago, Ain Issa witnessed protests in front of the Russian base in the region condemning the Russian silence regarding the Turkish attacks on Ain Issa.

Recently, media reports have cited political and military analysts who say that Russia wants the SDF to surrender Ain Issa to Turkish forces or the Syrian government.

Before the meeting, Russian military police sent reinforcements to the town of Ain Issa on Monday, with additional units to stabilize the situation.

“We reached agreements with Turkey to establish joint Russian-Syrian monitoring sites,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.