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  • 2020-02-19 (xsd:date)
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  • and that an offensive against Syrian government troops was now "a matter of time." The Kremlin said a direct military confrontation between Turkey and Assad would be a "worst-case scenario."Erkhov blamed Turkey (en)
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  • In an interview with the state-owned news outlet Sputnik, Russian Ambassador to Turkey Aleksei Erkhov blamed Turkey for escalating tensions between the two countries in northwest Syria.The claim is misleading.In recent months, Russia and Turkey have accused each other of violating an agreement they signed in 2018 on establishing de-escalation zones in the area. The agreement included an all-sides ceasefire, with Moscow ensuring that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces would stop advancing while Turkey secured the area from the remaining Islamic State fighters and reopened two strategic highways.But tensions erupted after the Syrian government launched an offensive last April, disrupting the ceasefire and violating the treaty with Turkey.After Syrian government forces killed 13 Turkish troops earlier this month, Turkey said it warned Russia of possible military action unless Assad’s forces withdrew from the strategic town of Idlib by the end of February.The two sides held negotiations in Moscow on Feb. 17-18 but could not reach a breakthrough (en)
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