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Kremlin Scrambles to Avoid Open Conflict With Turkey

Jamie Dettmer

   LONDON - The Kremlin was scrambling Friday to reach a stopgap agreement
   with Ankara to halt fighting in northwest Syria amid growing fears that
   Russia and Turkey are on the brink of open warfare.

   Clashes between the Turks and their Syrian rebel allies with troops
   loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in Idlib province have already
   killed two Turkish soldiers this week and dozens of Syrian government
   troops.

   The skirmishes between the Turks and Assad's forces were triggered when
   Syrian rebels supported by Turkish artillery stormed a village east of
   Idlib city on a strategic highway. Turkish media said the Turkish army
   was directly involved in the ground attack. Kremlin officials say their
   forces weren't involved and that their warplanes held off striking
   Turkish positions.

   While expressing hope an open conflict between Russia and Turkey can be
   averted, Kremlin officials warned that Russia would support al-Assad's
   forces militarily if the fighting escalates and Turkey increases its
   military operations.

   Desperate situation for displaced Syrians

   The new developments in Idlib, roiling months of cooperation between
   Moscow and Ankara on the Syrian conflict, are rapidly raising the
   stakes in Idlib -- as well as adding to the desperation of nearly a
   million displaced Syrians who have fled in the past few months toward
   the Turkish border, which remains closed to them.

   Since the Syria conflict erupted nearly nine years ago, Turkey has
   taken in more than 3 million Syrian refugees but refuses to accept any
   more. Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies have carved out a
   swathe of territory in northwest Syria and are relocating some Syrian
   refugees there, using land snatched from Kurdish forces.

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