Turkey and Russia have agreed to begin joint patrols along a key highway in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib as part of a recent ceasefire agreement between the two sides, Turkey’s defense minister says.

A deadly attack on Turkish forces in Syria has brought Idlib’s crisis to a dangerous crossroads. In this Q&A, Crisis Group’s Turkey, Syria and Russia experts explain what happened and what’s at stake.

The Kremlin was scrambling Friday to reach a stopgap agreement with Ankara to halt fighting in northwest Syria amid growing fears that Russia and Turkey are on the brink of open warfare.

Russia accused Turkey on Thursday of providing artillery support to militants fighting the Syrian army and said militants briefly broke through Syrian military positions in Idlib, Russian news agencies reported.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said he would help Pakistan stay off a terrorism financing blacklist at a meeting of a global finance watchdog, a move he suggested would counter “political pressure” from Islamabad’s critics.

Syria and Turkey inched closer to all-out war Monday as their troops exchanged deadly fire for the second time in a matter of days in Idlib, a contested and ravaged northern province that is the last remaining major rebel redoubt in Syria’ s nearly nine-year war.

Ankara to protect civilians and prevent Idlib exodus, governing party MP says, as Syrian government attacks intensify.

Gen. Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said his alliance anticipated a direct Turkish intervention in Syria and claimed that Turkey had ‘coordinated’ with the Islamic State terrorist group, during an interview with the privately owned TeN satellite channel on Sunday.

Four Turkish soldiers were killed in a car bomb attack in northeast Syria on Wednesday, the Turkish Defense Ministry said in a statement overnight.

“Turkey’s interference in the region creates a fertile environment for extremists and terrorist groups,” said the Observatory for Monitoring Takfiri Fatwas and Extremist Ideologies at Dar al-Ifta in a statement on Sunday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey will increase its military support to Libya’s internationally-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) if necessary and will evaluate military options there.

Turkey has deployed armed drones to northern Cyprus as tensions escalate in the gas-rich eastern Mediterranean over energy resources and control of their distribution. Greek- and Turkish Cypriots remain at loggerheads over the issue with the dispute now drawing in other nations.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey would give all the necessary support for the eradication of the Islamic State (IS) from Afghanistan.

Turkey’s foreign minister suggested Wednesday that the United States could be barred from using two strategic air bases in retaliation to possible U.S. sanctions against his country, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Russia, Turkey and Iran are concerned about the increased presence of terrorist groups in Syria’s Idlib province, the three countries said after talks in Kazakhstan, pledging to coordinate actions aimed at eliminating the militants.

American commanders have requested guidance on dealing with an attack from those armed groups and others from Iran and the Syrian government, but officials say they have received muddled direction.

Turkey is fully abiding by the agreements it reached with Russia and the United States regarding northeast Syria and is not resuming its military offensive, a security source said on Monday.

Turkish intelligence and security forces seized recruitment lists containing the names of Daesh operatives and their nationalities in a counterterror operation targeting the terrorist group in southern Turkey.

A high-ranking Russian military figure says Moscow plans to sign a new contract with Turkey to supply new batteries of the advanced Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems to Turkey in the first half of 2020.

Two months after Ankara threatened to launch an operation into northern Syria, where US forces are present, the US and Turkey seem to be working closely on a “security mechanism” that supposedly seeks to fulfill Turkey’s concerns about Syria.

urkey’s president has said that up to three million Syrian refugees could return to their country to live in a “safe zone” in the north.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry says the delivery of the second battery of the advanced Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems has been completed, and that the systems would become operational in April 2020.

Earlier, after a visit to an air show in Russia, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed that Turkey may opt to buy Russia’s Su-57 fifth generation fighter, instead of the F-35, after the US kicked Ankara out of the programme earlier this year.

Turkey established its first military base in Qatar in 2017, on the basis of a bilateral security agreement signed in late 2015, with the base said to be part of a broader security effort by the two countries to confront unspecified “common enemies.”

Turkey’s National Security Council met Tuesday to decide whether to launch a military offensive into Syria against the YPG Kurdish militia. With Washington backing the YPG and warning against any unilateral action, the two NATO allies could be on a collision course.

Turkish defence minister said the attack ‘dealt a heavy blow’ to the ‘terrorist’ Kurdish armed group, PKK, in Qandil. Turkey on Thursday launched an air attack on the Kurdish region in northern Iraq in response to the killing of a Turkish diplomat in the region, the country’s defence minister said.

The United States is officially removing Turkey from its F-35 stealth fighter jet program after Ankara accepted the Russian delivery of its S-400 missile defense system.

The fight for Tripoli has killed more than 750 people – not a stunning number when compared to 9/11, but not small enough to be ignored like a bomb blowing up in Paris, Istanbul or Berlin.

ISIS released a propaganda video from ‘Wilayah Turkey,’ showing a small group of militants pledging bayah, or allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The eighth in the “And the best outcome is for the righteous” series, the video is the first from this new province, but ISIS already has a complex presence in Turkey.

The Libyan National Army has accused the Turkish regime of supporting terrorist groups in Libya. The army announced in a statement that Libyan National Army is fighting against armed terrorists on Libyan territories, while a Turkish logistic support has been offered to terrorist elements since years ago.

Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar says Ankara will retaliate against any attack by militia fighting for renegade Libyan General Khalifa Haftar, who has ordered to target Turkish interests in Libya.

Russia said on June 11 that it plans to deliver its S-400 missile defense systems to Turkey in July, just days after Washington gave Ankara a deadline of July 31 to reverse the purchase or face the loss of subcontracting work on the U.S.-led F-35 fighter-jet project.

Over the past few weeks, northwest Syria witnessed yet another serious military escalation. Russian and Syrian regime forces unleashed a deadly campaign of bombardment on parts of Idlib, Aleppo and Hama provinces, after two attacks by Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an armed group formerly linked to al-Qaeda, killed 22 pro-regime fighters on April 27.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Russian air-defense missile systems could be delivered earlier than initially planned, standing by a purchase that has put the NATO member at odds with Washington.

Twenty-five years ago, Turkish Islamists’ march to power began in the country’s capital, Ankara, and its largest city, Istanbul, when the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) predecessor, the Welfare Party (RP), captured the two municipalities. The loss of these cities in Sunday’s local elections could well mark the beginning of their descent. Millions of […]