Fight escalates as Ankara hits Syrian targets

Moscow says it cannot guarantee safety of Turkish planes over Idlib

The disagreement over Syria's Idlib Province between Russia and Turkey seemed to worsen their relations after Ankara launched the latest round of attacks on Syrian warplanes and a military airport on Sunday.

In response, Syria's army said it shot down three Turkish drones and warned it would take down any aircraft breaching the air space over the northwest, which has been controlled for years by Damascus' main ally Moscow, Russia's Tass News Agency reported.

Turkey's military action was strongly opposed by Russia. And Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned an agreement signed by Putin and Erdogan in 2019 in Sochi for the stability of northeast Syria.

"Regrettably, Turkey has failed to implement its commitments and terrorists have gone on the offensive against the Syrian armed forces," Peskov said. Russia defines Syrian rebels as terrorists.

Oleg Zhuravlev, the chief of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Parties in Syria, also said that Russia opposed Turkey's strike on Syrian targets, warning there will be no guarantee of safety for Turkish aircraft flying over Syria.

The fighting has risked drawing Russia and Turkey, which have cooperated for years to contain the fighting despite backing rival sides in Syria's nine-year war, into direct conflict.

Tensions in Idlib escalated recently after militants launched a large-scale offensive, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

More than 30 Turkish soldiers were killed in an attack by Syrian government forces on Feb 27. After that, Turkish forces struck at the Syrian army, hitting 200 targets.

Russian and Turkish officials are now discussing a potential meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Peskov said the meeting might be held in Moscow on Thursday or Friday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu confirmed the preparations.

And during the telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the two top diplomats agreed that measures were needed to create a favorable atmosphere for dialogue on a Syrian settlement.

Lavrov and Cavusoglu also discussed the detention of Russian journalists in Ankara on Saturday.

Mahir Boztepe, the detained editor-in-chief of Russia's state-owned Sputnik Turkiye news agency in Istanbul, was released on Sunday after a phone call between two foreign ministers.

Explanation urged

The journalist's release was confirmed in a Twitter post by Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Rossiya Segodnya News Agency, RT TV channel and Sputnik.

"Turkey, what is this?" Simonyan wrote, asking Turkish authorities for an explanation.

Boztepe's detention came a day after a crowd of people chanted slogans outside the homes of three Sputnik journalists in Ankara, one of the journalist's relatives said.

Simonyan wrote on her Telegram channel earlier on Sunday that the police were searching the agency's Istanbul office under an official warrant. She also wrote that the three Sputnik Turkiye employees, who had been detained earlier, were taken to the Palace of Justice for questioning.

According to Simonyan, practically all Sputnik Turkiye employees are Turkish nationals.

"What appears to have been a coordinated attack came at a time of heightened tensions in Idlib between Syria and Turkey," Sputnik said on its website.

The Journalists' Union of Turkey said the intimidation of reporters and their detention was unacceptable.

"Journalists cannot be made to pay for the tension between states," the union said.