On Tuesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador to Ankara in light of the recent Russian bombing of Idleb.
A source in the Turkish Foreign Ministry said that the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Alexei Yerkhov, had been summoned to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, due to the worsening situation in the de-escalation zone in Idleb.
“We mainly discussed the attacks in Syria,” said the source, whose identity remains unknown. “We communicated our concerns to the Russian side, especially with regard to the [Al-Atareb] Hospital. Our army also conveyed similar concerns to its Russian counterpart.”
Turkish newspaper Hürriyet reported that Turkey summoned the Russian ambassador and held a meeting with him in the Foreign Ministry building. It also held a separate meeting at the headquarters of the Armed Forces, where Turkey expressed its security concerns as a result of the escalation of Russian attacks in northern Syria, near the Turkish border.
According to the newspaper, Turkey sent a message to Russian officials that these attacks “threaten stability and security in the areas that have been identified as de-escalation zones, according to the agreement between Russia and Turkey.”
Over the past few days, several areas in Idleb and the western countryside of Aleppo witnessed an escalation of bombing by Russian aircraft and by the regime camps surrounding the area.
On Friday morning, the surgical hospital of the city of al-Atareb in the western countryside of Aleppo was subjected to a concentrated bombardment by Bashar al-Assad’s forces, which resulted in the killing of seven people, including a child and a woman.
Hours after the aforementioned targeting, Russian warplanes launched raids near the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
