On August 27, 2019, President Erdoğan paid a visit to Moscow to meet with President Putin. The two presidents held various talks in which they discussed bilateral and international issues, particularly ongoing Syria-related issues. The two leaders also participated in the inauguration ceremony of the International Aviation and Space Salon MAKS-2019, one of the world’s leading events in this field.
On January 8, 2020, President Erdoğan and President Putin met in Istanbul and attended the opening ceremony of the TurkStream Natural Gas Pipeline Project, which will carry natural gas from Russia to Turkey and Europe. Serbian President Vucic and Bulgarian Prime Minister Borisov also attended the ceremony.
On February 3, 2020, seven Turkish soldiers and one civilian contractor working with the Turkish military were killed in hostilities in Idlib. Republic of Turkey exercised its inalienable right of self-defense and would continue to do so.
Iraq
On January 23, 2019, Turkey announced that the ban on flights in and out of Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq would be lifted on January 25, 2019, which had been implemented since October 17, 2017.
On May 15, 2019, President Erdoğan received Prime Minister Adil AbdAl-Mahdi of Iraq in Ankara.
On June 10, 2019, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu visited Erbil to attend the oath-taking ceremony of President Nechirvan Barzani of the Kurdish Regional Government of Iraq (KRG) and to hold bilateral meetings.
On September 25, 2019, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was in New York for the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly, met with President Barham Salih of Iraq.
Syria
On January 20, 2018, Turkey launched “Operation Olive Branch”, a military operation in Syria’s northern Afrin district along the Turkish-Syrian border to neutralize terrorist elements. “Operation Olive Branch” aims to clear the region of armed forces aligned with the PKK, including the PYD and YPG, that control the territory and who threaten the Republic’s national security and civilians’ safety in the region. Operation Olive Branch has been carried out on the basis of international law, in accordance with the right to self-defense as outlined in Article 51 of the UN Charter and the relevant UN Security Council resolutions 1373(2001), 1624(2005), 2170(2014) and 2178(2014) as well as in full respect of Syria’s territorial integrity. The current phase of the operation is focused on ensuring security and stability(de-mining, establishing order, local governance and security, return of IDPs and refugees originally from Afrin) based on the principle of “local ownership”.
The Republic is continuing its humanitarian efforts to provide shelter to refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria. As of January 30, 2020, 63,491 Syrian refugees occupied shelter centers throughout Turkey.
On April25-26, 2019, the twelfth round of high-level meetings on Syria in the Astana format was held inNur-Sultan (formerly Astana). During the meetings, the parties agreed to continue their coordination regarding the situation on the east of the Euphrates in Syria. They also reiterated their determination to implement the agreements on the stabilization of the situation in the Idlibde-escalation area and welcomed the steps taken to this end. On August1-2, 2019, the thirteenth round of high-level meetings on Syria in the Astana format was held inNur-Sultan (formerly Astana). The meetings concluded with a decision to step up joint efforts to prevent civilian casualties in Idlib. The final declaration of the meeting highlighted the parties’ commitment to Syria’s territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty, underlining that the fight will continue against all kinds of terrorist groups. On December10-11, 2019, the fourteenth round of high-level meetings on Syria in the Astana format was held inNur-Sultan. During the meetings, developments on the ground, particularly on the east of the Euphrates and in Idlib as well as the current state of affairs in the political process were discussed.
On February 14, 2019, a trilateral summit was held in Sochi in which Turkish President Erdoğan, Russian President Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani participated. During the meeting, the three leaders mainly discussed the current situation in Syria. According to the joint statement released after the meeting, the leaders
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