A summit Tuesday between the presidents of Turkey and Russia on a Syrian safe zone is expected to be positive, said a former White House security expert, APA reports cioting Anadolu Agency.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is meeting his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Sochi today to discuss the latest developments and the future of northern Syria.
Matthew Bryza, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and former director on the National Security Council staff in the George W. Bush administration during 9/11, told Anadolu Agency on Monday that Russia will not stop Turkey's military operation against the YPG/PKK terror group.
Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring on Oct. 9 to eliminate terrorists from northern Syria in order to secure Turkey's borders, aid in the safe return of Syrian refugees and ensure Syria's territorial integrity.
"What I expect is it will be a positive outcome, that President Putin will continue folding YPG units into Russian and Syrian military units and move YPG operatives, soon to be former YPG operatives, out of the safe zone. Because if he were not to do that, I think, A) Russia looks like a diplomatic weakling, which is the opposite of what Putin wants, and B), if things get too out of hand between Turkey and the YPG, that's, that's not good for Russia or for us either," he said.
"But, and also, I think President Putin is going to try to use his help in the safe zone to leverage more help by Turkey in Idlib against the militias that Russia doesn't like. But that said, I do think that from time to time, Russia might allow a few YPG fighters to trickle back in, keep things tense as they do in the South Caucasus, which is where I spent so much of my career," he added.
On Oct. 17, Turkey agreed to pause the operation for 120 hours, expiring on Tuesday night, to allow the withdrawal of YPG/PKK terrorists from the planned safe zone.
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