Several hundred refugees gathered on the border of the Syrian province with Turkey on Sunday. “We will leave Idlib, we will go to the Turkish border and on to Europe,” said one of the organizers of the rally.
Until the afternoon, however, there was no evidence of attempts by the refugees to cross the closed border with Turkey.
In the border area, several hundred thousand people seek protection from the fighting in Idlib. The Syrian army is on the rise in the area dominated by jihadist groups. The Turkish army, which supports some rebel groups, sent several convoys with tanks and armored vehicles to Idlib on Sunday.
“From Idlib to Berlin”
Protesters on the Turkish border wall were seen in photos and videos of the rally. Some of them carried a banner with the words “From Idlib to Berlin”. If the international community is unable to protect people from Syrian government forces and their ally Russia, “then we have the right to live for ourselves and our children outside the walls of the prison you put us in” said Abd Ulrazak Awad, an aid worker who called for the border meeting.
Refugees from all parts of the country who had fled from President Bashar al Assad’s troops live in Idlib. With the capture of Idlib, Assad wants to make his military victory perfect after almost nine years of war. Syrian troops and Russian fighter jets are expelling many refugees by targeted bombing of civilian facilities. On Sunday, nine people were killed in new bombings in Idlib, according to the opposition-oriented Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The aim of the government in Ankara on Sunday to send military convoys from more than a hundred vehicles to Idlib remained unclear at first. Pictures of the Turkish state broadcaster TRT showed battle tanks on low loaders and armored personnel carriers. The new troops may be supposed to protect the twelve Turkish military posts in Idlib that had been established since 2018 following an agreement with Russia.
There were several suicide bombings in Aleppo
The posts have been partially encircled by the Syrian army due to the escalating battles in recent days. Even Turkey’s limited military action poses a direct confrontation with the Syrian army in Idlib.
Over the weekend, Islamist rebels attempted to open a new front with several suicide bombings and new attacks in the area around Aleppo, east of Idlib. According to the observatory, Russian fighters also attacked targets in an area occupied by Turkish troops during the fighting.
The military escalation is putting the Turkish-Russian alliance in Syria to the test. Despite conflicting interests – Ankara is aiming to overthrow Assad, which is allied with Moscow – the two countries had previously cooperated with each other and had excluded their opposites. The Turkish-Russian alliance could now break up in the battle for Idlib.
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