Western powers denounced Russia’s military support for Syrian dictator Bashar Assad following an attack that killed more than 30 Turkish troops, a surge in violence that has European officials fearing a broader conflict.
“Allies offer their deepest condolences for the death of Turkish soldiers in last night’s bombing in Idlib,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday after an emergency session of the alliance. “Allies condemn the continued indiscriminate air strikes by the Syrian regime and Russia in Idlib province.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded to the Thursday attack by striking several Assad regime military positions “and Russian bastion Latakia,” according to Turkish media. Russian officials, for their part, blamed Turkey for the fatalities by asserting that Turkish troops commingled with terrorist fighters in Assad’s crosshairs. And the Russian navy announced that “two warships equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles” are being sent to the region, according to local reports.
“Ongoing escalation around needs to stop urgently,” Josep Borrell, the European Union’s top diplomat, tweeted Friday. “There is a risk of sliding into a major open international military confrontation. It is also causing unbearable humanitarian suffering and putting civilians in danger.”
The attack underscored the danger of a Syrian civil war that has involved five different foreign national militaries fighting on different sides of a war marked by regime brutality and an array of terrorist groups. Those militaries have come closer to each other as Assad’s military victories have caused millions of civilians to flee for the last rebel stronghold of Idlib, a hotbed of terrorist groups.
Russia, which has endorsed a “crushing” offensive against Idlib, blamed Turkey for the incident Thursday.
“The tragic deaths of Turkish troops occurred at the places of offensive operations by terrorist formations, among which, incidentally, there are numerous foreign mercenaries, including citizens of the former Soviet Union,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday, per state-run media.
Russia’s top diplomat echoed that sentiment while maintaining that Moscow can’t control Assad. “The Syrian Army has every right to respond to repeated ceasefire violations in the Idlib zone and suppress terrorists,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday. “We cannot stop the Syrian Army from implementing the provisions of U.N. Security Council resolutions on the uncompromising fight against all forms of terrorism.”
Turkey called for emergency consultations with NATO, prompting questions about whether Erdogan would try to invoke the collective defense provisions of the NATO treaty. The treaty language says that an attack would have to take place “on the territory of Turkey” or “on the forces, vessels, or aircraft of any of the Parties, when in or over these territories” to trigger the allies’ obligation. Lavrov cited the language to argue that NATO’s hands are tied. “I do not think that the current situation in Syria falls under any of these situations stipulated in these articles of the Washington Treaty,” he said, using a common name for the 1949 treaty that established NATO.
Stoltenberg was ambiguous about what specific actions might be taken to aid Turkey. “We provide practical support with different assurance measures and we are constantly assessing, and Allies are looking at what more they can do and that was also expressed clearly in the meeting today,” he said. “We are strongly supporting and NATO Allies are engaged in trying to move forward in efforts, in the U.N.-led efforts to find a peaceful solution and we call Turkey, we call on Syria and Russia to fully engage in such U.N.-led efforts to find a peaceful solution.”
