After massive Turkish air and artillery strikes on Kurdish positions in northern Syria, Russia on Tuesday expressed hope that Turkey would exercise restraint. “We hope to convince our Turkish colleagues to refrain from excessive force on Syrian territory” to “prevent the escalation of tensions,” said Alexander Lavrentiev, the Kremlin’s envoy to Syria.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently stated that he is considering deploying ground troops in the neighboring country. The country launched a long-planned military offensive against Kurdish units in northern Syria on Sunday.
Attacks on PKK bases
According to the Turkish Defense Ministry, the attacks targeted bases of the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Syrian-Kurdish organization YPG. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 37 people were killed.
The Kremlin wants to find a “peaceful solution”.
Russia had been doing “everything to prevent a large-scale ground operation” for months, Lavrentiev said in the Kazakh capital Astana, where new negotiations on the Syrian conflict are taking place with representatives of Russia, Iran and Turkey. He called on all involved to “continue working” to find a “peaceful solution, including for the Kurdish question”.
Turkey supports Syrian rebels
Turkey supports rebels fighting Syria’s ruler Bashar al-Assad. Syria and Russia, on the other hand, have been allies for decades.
However, the bond between the two countries has been particularly close since Moscow intervened militarily on Assad’s side in the war in Syria in 2015. This turned the tide in favor of the ruler, whose troops were able to recapture a number of territories.
Source: Krone
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