{"id":42195,"date":"2020-01-08T12:22:42","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T12:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=42195"},"modified":"2020-01-08T12:22:42","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T12:22:42","slug":"35-turkish-soldiers-sent-to-libya-so-far-erdogan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=42195","title":{"rendered":"35 Turkish soldiers sent to Libya so far: Erdogan"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"56\">\n<p>\nISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will host Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to inaugurate a new gas pipeline, with tensions in Libya and Syria also on the agenda.<br \/>Putin arrived late on Tuesday after paying a surprise visit to Syria \u2014 his first to Damascus since the war began \u2014 at a moment of acute uncertainty in the Middle East following the assassination of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani by the United States.<br \/>Russia\u2019s leader will seek to boost his credentials as a regional powerbroker at the symbolic opening of the TurkStream pipeline, which brings Russian gas to Turkey and southern Europe via the Black Sea.<br \/>TurkStream and the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic allow Russia to increase gas supplies to Europe without having to rely on Ukraine.<br \/>But Moscow\u2019s increasing domination of European energy markets has worried the US, which last month sanctioned firms working on TurkStream and the almost completed Nord Stream 2.<br \/>The ceremony in Istanbul, due to start at 1200 GMT, reflects a dramatic improvement in ties between Russia and Turkey \u2014 two countries seemingly on the verge of war less than five years ago after Turkey shot down a Russian jet.<br \/>They remain on opposing sides in the Syria conflict and could be on a collision course in Libya.<br \/>Last week, Turkey sent its first troops to help defend the UN-backed Tripoli government, which is under siege from strongman Khalifa Haftar.<br \/>Erdogan says 2,500 Russian mercenaries are among those supporting Haftar \u2014 claims denied by Moscow.<br \/>But Russia so far seems unfazed by the Turkish deployment in Libya, said Mariana Belenkaia, of the Carnegie Center in Moscow.<br \/>\u201cThe two countries will likely be tempted to share the Libyan burden,\u201d she said.<br \/>Syria remains a potential powder-keg for Erdogan and Putin\u2019s relationship.<br \/>Syrian government forces \u2014 backed by Russia \u2014 have ramped up bombardment of the last rebel strongholds in Idlib province in recent weeks, sending hundreds of thousands fleeing toward the Turkish border.<br \/>Erdogan has called for a truce in Idlib, following previous temporary halts to the fighting brokered with Russia in late 2018 and updated in August last year.<br \/>\u201cRussia\u2019s demands are very simple,\u201d said Yury Barmin, of the Moscow Policy Group think tank, \u201cTurkey must do more to eliminate terrorist cells in Idlib. The discussions will be around this idea.\u201d<br \/>Improved ties between the two countries have been facilitated by a number of major energy and defense deals \u2014 Russia is building Turkey\u2019s first nuclear plant and provided a missile defense system.<br \/>Putin also earned goodwill in Turkey after his quick support for Erdogan following an attempted coup in July 2016.<br \/>The two men have developed a \u201cstrong personal relationship,\u201d according to Jana Jabbour of Sciences Po university in Paris, who adds that \u201ctheir economic and energy plans are interdependent.\u201d<br \/>The TurkStream project, which was temporarily halted during a frosty patch in Russia-Turkey relations, includes two parallel pipelines of more than 900 kilometers (550 miles).<br \/>The pipeline links Anapa in Russia to Kiyikoy in northwestern Turkey and has already begun deliveries to Bulgaria. It is being extended toward Serbia, Hungary and Austria.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will host Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to inaugurate a new gas pipeline, with tensions in Libya and Syria also on the agenda.Putin arrived late on Tuesday after paying a surprise visit to Syria \u2014 his first to Damascus since the war began \u2014 at a moment of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":42196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42195","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\/42195","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=42195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}