VietJoy

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin have reached an agreement aimed at ending fighting in Syria’s war-torn Idlib province.

After talks in Moscow Thursday, they announced a ceasefire that will come into force in the region at midnight.

While nominally partners in a fight against terrorism in the region, Moscow and Ankara have been cast on a seemingly unavoidable collision course in Idlib — the territory in northwest Syria where Russia is helping its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, wipe out one of the last remaining bastions of opposition to his rule.

Turkey, along with western governments, accuses the Syrian government of carrying out a bombing campaign with Russian support that has provoked a humanitarian crisis, with nearly a million civilians fleeing the fighting for the Syria-Turkey border.   

In response, Turkey has launched a military campaign intended to protect what it says are largely anti-Assad rebels, not terrorists, in the Idlib stronghold.  

Turkey said Syrian government airstrikes had killed 54 Turkish soldiers in February alone, including 33 airstrikes in Idlib last week.  

Turkish forces responded by shooting down three Syrian government warplanes and striking a military airport deep inside Syrian territory which killed what it said were over 100 Assad regime loyalists.