{"id":15021,"date":"2018-09-14T05:24:11","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T05:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=15021"},"modified":"2018-09-14T05:24:11","modified_gmt":"2018-09-14T05:24:11","slug":"turkey-deploys-reinforcements-to-syrian-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=15021","title":{"rendered":"Turkey deploys reinforcements to Syrian border"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Antakya, Turkey <\/strong>– Turkey continued to deploy troops and heavy weaponry to its southwestern border with Syria in anticipation of a major offensive by the Syrian government and its allies on opposition-held territory.<\/p>\n

A Turkish military convoy arrived at a Turkish outpost near the town of Morek, in Syria’s northern Hama province, early on Thursday<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera also observed the arrival of a military plane that unloaded dozens of Turkish soldiers at the civilian airport in Hatay province, about 50km from the Turkish-Syrian border. It was not immediately clear whether the troops were heading across the border.<\/p>\n

Turkey already hosts three-and-a-half million Syrian refugees and is fearful of another major influx if Syrian forces – backed by Russian airpower and allied militias – attack the last remaining stronghold of opposition fighters in Idlib province.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Metin Gurcan, a Turkish security expert, the border reinforcement was a defensive measure.<\/p>\n

“If you look at the types of those weapons systems, I would say they are all for defensive purposes. So I don’t think Turkey has offensive intention and capability to militarily intervene in the Idlib conundrum,” he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

“This is sort of the preventive, defensive military buildup to manage the anticipated refugee flow because of this push of Russia-backed Syrian forces from the south.”<\/p>\n

Nearly 40,000 people have already fled Idlib after Syrian-Russian air strikes intensified over the last two weeks. The UN estimates, in a worst-case scenerio, about 900,000 civilians could flee Idlib if a full-scale ground offensive begins.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

This big bird just landed in Hatay and unloaded a few dozen soldiers. #Idlib<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/2PxQmWyXmL<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Mariya Petkova (@mkpetkova) September 13, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Turkish officials\u00a0<\/span>have repeatedly warned<\/a>\u00a0Russia and the Syrian government against attacking Idlib, saying it would lead to another massive wave of refugees heading towards Turkey.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the past week, Turkey<\/a> has deployed reinforcements and expanded defensive structures at about a dozen observation points across opposition-held territories in Idlib, western Aleppo, and northern Hama provinces.<\/p>\n

The outposts were established after a de-escalation agreement<\/a> was reached between Turkey, Russia<\/a> and Iran<\/a> in July 2017.<\/p>\n

Areas in Deraa and Homes provinces and the suburb of Eastern Ghouta were also part of the de-escalation deal, but over the past few months they have been captured by Syrian government forces backed by the Russian air force and pro-Iranian militias.<\/p>\n

On September 7, a ceasefire proposed by Turkey was rejected by Russia and Iran during a summit among the three countries in Tehran.<\/p>\n

‘Siege warfare’<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A confrontation between Turkish forces and those backing the Syrian government are “highly unlikely” if the offensive on Idlib goes forward, said Gurkan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Russia continues to control Syria’s airspace, he noted,<\/span>\u00a0and Turkey is unlikely to initiate any military action there without Russian approval.<\/p>\n

“I don’t expect a large-scale ground offensive [by Syrian forces]. It is going to a gradual, incremental siege warfare that could last maybe nine to 10 months,” said Gurkan.<\/p>\n

He added Turkey was unlikely to withdraw its observation points manned by its troops if heavy fighting begins.<\/p>\n

“These are Russia-endorsed observation posts, the prime objective of which is to prevent the expansion of pro-Iranian Shia militias from Aleppo to Idlib,” he said.<\/p>\n

According to Gurkan, Russia also wants to limit Iranian influence in Syria and prevent it from spreading into Idlib province.<\/p>\n

Follow Mariya Petkova on Twitter:\u00a0@mkpetkova<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Antakya, Turkey – Turkey continued to deploy troops and heavy weaponry to its southwestern border with Syria in anticipation of a major offensive by the Syrian government and its allies on opposition-held territory. A Turkish military convoy arrived at a Turkish outpost near the town of Morek, in Syria’s northern Hama province, early on Thursday.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":15022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}