Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a visit to Russia recently agreed with his Russian Counterpart Vladimir Putin that Ankara makes a review of the Adana Agreement with Syria.

In fact, Putin suggested to his Turkish counterpart that instead of creating a safe zone and implementing an agreement between Turkey and the United States, to consider a 1998 accord with Syria called the “Adana Agreement” as the basis in solving the problems and crises created with Damascus and the Kurdish issue.

The agreement between Turkey and Russia with an aim to improve the situation in Syria could help conceive an Iranian-Turkish-Russian triangle to solve the Syrian crisis.

In fact, due to concerns that Turkey had over the presence of the Kurdish Democrats Party of Syria, the Russians began negotiations with these Kurdish forces and persuaded them to retreat within 30 kilometers of the Syrian border and concurrently the Syrian government forces be deployed in Idlib border regions.

This occurred following a series of clashes between the Syrian democratic forces and the Turkish troops in Idlib.

It should be noted that the agreement between Russia and Turkey could serve the interest of the Syrian government and at the same time address the Turkish government’s concerns regarding the presence of the forces defending the people near the Turkish borders.

For this reason, it appears that Turkey’s forces will withdraw from the 10-kilometer zone of the Idlib province over the next month and deployed in Iskenderun Province. This agreement will, in fact, strip the United States of a pretext to resort to military intervention in Syria because the United States has repeatedly announced that Washington will intervene if Syria’s Kurdish forces are attacked.

It is natural for Turkey to avoid clashes with the US forces and therefore it had to turn to an agreement with Russia, Iran, Syria, and the Syrian Democratic Party.

On the other hand, Turkey’s military presence in Idlib has imposed a heavy cost on the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The possibility of a confrontation between Syrian Kurdish forces and the Turkish Army has led the Erdogan government to change its policies under the pressure of the Syrian crisis players and because of the failure of the US, the West, and Saudi policies in Syria. Currently, disagreements between Turkey and the US have intensified and recently the Turkish president accused the United States of supplying weapons to Syrian terrorist groups. Hence, we are witnessing further inclination of Ankara to Iran, Russia, and Syria.

It should be noted that the withdrawal of the Turkish forces from Idlib and the change in policies of Erdogan on the Syrian crisis is considered a major victory for the Axis of Resistance. The reason is that the Syrian democratic forces did not adopt an aggressive position towards the Axis of Resistance in recent years. For this reason, the Turkish government has come to the conclusion that it should not interfere more in the internal affairs of Syria.

Regarding the history of the Adana Agreement between Turkey and Syria, it must be noted that in the mid-1990s, at the time of President Suleyman Demirel, the Syrian and Turkish forces came close to a military confrontation. The military alert of the armed forces of the two countries along the borders had increased the possibility of war between the two sides.
Also, at that time, the Turkish government accused Syria of providing military training and arms to the PKK; in response, the Syrian government accused Ankara of cutting off the water supply from the Euphrates to put pressure on Syria.

But eventually, an Iranian mediated agreement between the late Hafez al-Assad, the then-Syrian president and the late Turkish President, Suleyman Demirel, ended the tension between the two countries. Egypt also played a role in the implementation of the deal called the Adana Agreement. Under the agreement, the two countries formed a joint military committee to control common borders.