Ankara and Moscow began joint patrols in an area of 7 km along the Syrian border from November 1.

"We will begin joint operations on the ground on Friday, namely we will start joint patrols," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Turkey's parliament today.

According to the Erdogan agreement reached with Russian President Putin on October 22, the Kurdish militia (YPG) needs to withdraw all forces and weapons from the 440-km-wide and 30-km buffer zone along the Syrian-Turkish border in within 150 hours, cede control of the area to the Russian military police and the Syrian border. The deadline for this deal is 15:00 GMT on October 29 (22:00 Hanoi time).

Earlier, the Turkish military launched the Spring Peace campaign against YPG in northeastern Syria on October 9. Turkey on October 17 agreed to suspend the campaign for five days after talks with US Vice President Mike Pence. On October 23, Ankara decided to end the operation.

Russia announced yesterday that Syrian Kurdish fighters have withdrawn from the land near the Syrian-Turkish border. However, Erdogan said today it has not completely withdrawed. He emphasized that Turkey "has the right to launch another campaign against the YPG in the region" if it identifies any Kurdish fighters or if its forces are attacked.

Ankara considers the YPG to be a terrorist branch of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which launched the separatist movement in Turkey in the early 1980s. However, the YPG was a close ally of the US in the war. against the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) rebels.

Forces in northern Syria after Russia and Turkey K