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Turkish Army Says Launches Reconnaissance Mission in Syria's Idlib
[AnNahar] The Ottoman Turkish army has launched a reconnaissance mission in Syria's largely jihadist-controlled northwestern Idlib province in a bid to create a de-escalation zone, the military said on Monday.

"The Ottoman Turkish armed forces began reconnaissance activities on October 8 (Sunday) to establish surveillance posts as part of the operation to be carried out in Idlib province," the armed forces said in a statement.

Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
 announced on Saturday the start of the new military operation inside Syria by pro-Ankara Syrian rebels backed by the Ottoman Turkish army.

The statement was the first confirmation by the Ottoman Turkish army of involvement inside Syria in the latest operation.

The operation is part of efforts by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
, along with Russia and Iran, to set up the zone in line with accords in Astana peace talks aimed at ending the Syrian civil war.

They agreed on four such ceasefire zones in Syria as a prelude to negotiations.

Three zones are already in place -- in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, in central Homs, and in parts of southern Syria -- and are being monitored by Russian military police.

Idlib is largely controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group led by al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate, which ousted more moderate rebels in recent months.

The pro-Ottoman Turkish forces will need to oust HTS members in the area to allow Iranian, Russian and Ottoman Turkish forces to implement the zone.

- Working with Russia -
The last time Ottoman Turkish forces were engaged in Syria was in August, when Turkey launched its eight-months long Euphrates Shield operation against jihadists and Kurdish militia in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo.

"Even if we turn our backs on developments in Syria, can we escape from the results of the crisis?" Erdogan said on Sunday, explaining the reason for Turkey's latest intervention.

"This is why when we don't go to Syria, Syria comes to us," he added.

Although Moscow supports Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
 while Turkey supports rebels seeking his ouster, the two countries have worked together intensively to try to end the conflict in the past few months.

Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
 have met several times since a 2016 reconciliation ended a crisis caused by the shooting down of a Russian war plane over Syria.

The conflict in Syria began with widespread protests against the government but has since evolved into a multi-front war that has killed more than 330,000 people.
Posted by: trailing wife 2017-10-10
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=499221