Putin and Erdogan meet in Moscow as Idlib offensive tests ties

Russian President Vladimir Putin met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday as Syrian airstrikes targeted the rebel-held province of Idlib where Moscow and Ankara had set up a demilitarized zone.

Their meeting in Moscow is taking place a day after Erdogan said Turkey was ready to send ground troops into northern Syria “very soon” in order to keep its borders safe.

The escalating violence in Idlib has shattered a deal reached in September between Russia and Turkey to establish a buffer zone.

A Turkish military convoy was attacked in north-western Syria last week despite Moscow being alerted to its movement, the Turkish Defence Ministry said.

Ankara is simultaneously working with the United States to establish a “safe zone” near its border with Syria, to remove US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces there and stem the flow of refugees into Turkey.

Turkey backs opposition rebels fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose military – supported by Russian air power – began a military offensive against rebels in Idlib in April.

Syrian forces most recently retook control of Khan Sheikhoun, the largest town in the south of Idlib, which is located on an international highway connecting Aleppo and Damascus.

The Idlib offensive is a threat to Turkish troops stationed at observation posts. Ankara has 12 observation posts in the region and, despite the advance of Syrian forces, said all of its sites would remain in place.

Putin and Erdogan met first on Tuesday at the opening of the MAKS air show in the Moscow region, a biennial showcase of Russia’s aerospace industry.

Erdogan said he believed that “the synergy we have been cultivating with Russia in aviation and space technology will help deepen bilateral relations.”

Turkey last month acquired Russia’s advanced S-400 missile system, evoking the ire of fellow NATO members.

Parts of the second S-400 battery from Russia arrived in Turkey on Tuesday, the Defence Ministry in Ankara said.

Erdogan was also to be shown Russia’s Su-57 stealth fighter jet.

The US has suspended Turkey from its F-35 fighter jet programme in reaction to Ankara purchasing Russia’s S-400s. Washington has repeatedly said that the S-400 and the F-35 are incompatible.

“We’ll show the Su-57 and the Su-35,” Russia Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov, whose remit includes defence activities, said in comments carried by Russian news agency Interfax.

Those fighter jets are designed by Russian state company Sukhoi.

The Turkish delegation includes Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Defence Minister Hulusi Akar, intelligence chief Hakan Fidan and Erdogan’s son-in-law, Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak.