Turkey continues to build its military presence, with significant forces and armored combat vehicles being stationed near the Turkish Cilvegozu border crossing into the Syrian Idlib-province. The military build-up comes as Turkey anticipates a more challenging operation in Idlib, which is currently under control of Jihadist militias, a reality which Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim declared was unacceptable. Prime Minister Yildirim further stressed that Turkey will be present in Syria’s Idlib province under the agreement it reached with Russia and Iran to establish a de-escalation zone, as well as to assure that the threats from the Jihadist organizations that control the region, primarily the al-Qaeda linked Ahrar al-Sham, would be thwarted.
Turkey, which is already hosting around three million Syrian refugees, has been one of the biggest supporters of rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad during the six-and-a-half-year war, but its focus has moved from ousting him to securing its own border against jihadist and Kurdish militias.