Erdogan reached Moscow, difficult files waiting for him

NEWS DESK

The Turkish President Recep Teyyip Erdogan reached Moscow in a one-day visit to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to consider several complex issues.

The Turkish delegation included the Minister of Turkish Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the Turkish Minister of Defense Hulusi Akar, the Head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization Hakan Fidan and other officials.

It is supposed that Erdogan will discuss with Putin Idlib agreement that was signed by the two parties in September 17th and Turkey did not implement its items that included to establish a disarmed zone through withdrawing the heavy weapons from the mercenaries and also withdrawing the mercenaries from that area till last October 15th.

Moreover, Jabhet al-Nusra has extended its domination in the areas where Turkish surveillances are existed since the beginning of this year, and this forms a great challenge for Erdogan as he is required to make significant concessions to the Russian side to maintain the agreement.

In exchange, Erdogan will strive to propose the idea of the so-called a buffer zone in the Syrian north that the Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had earlier expressed Moscow's rejection of Turkey's taking over the supervision of it.

Erdogan had previously made concessions to Putin as he was allowed to control the eastern al-Gouta and the Syrian south by withdrawing the mercenaries from them and taking them to Idlib in exchange for allowing him to launch aggression and occupy Afrin in the beginning of 2018.