QAMISLO - Russia's game to withdraw from Til Rifat located in the Northern and Eastern Syria, lasted for a day. Journalist Delil Zilan said that Russia's "Either the regime or the Turks" pressure and blackmail backfired by the Kurdish resistance.

 

Military activity continues in Northern and Eastern Syria. Russia withdrew its troops stationed in the Til Rifat region of Shehba Canton on 13 April. However, after a day of withdrawal, military units returned to the evacuated points. We talked to journalist Delil Zilan, who closely follows the developments in the region and the aim and results of Russia's withdrawal and repositioning of its troops.

 

IRAN DOMINATES THE REGION

 

Reminding that Shehba is the gate opening to Aleppo, Zilan stated that the people settled at the moment in the region after the control of Efrîn passed to Turkey and the paramilitary groups, who are supported by Turkey. Expressing that the presence of the Baath Regime Forces in the Aleppo, Shehba, and Til Rifat regions is accepted, Zilan said that the regime does not have an effectin the region and the most effective force in the region is a brigade of Iranians established in the name of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Jerusalem Forces, who is responsible for foreign operations of Iran. Stating that this brigade is the Al Jerusalem Brigade and they are effective on land, Zilan said, "But they unfurled the flags of the Russians in the police stations. There are also Hêzên Rizgariya Efrîn (HRE) forces in the region. There have been several agreements regarding this place before. Russians said, ‘The Kurds have left us in a difficult situation here. They are constantly carrying out actions against Efrîn. This is challenging for us. It damages our agreement with the Turks. Russians said, "The forces loyal to the Kurds should withdraw from here". This happened a few months ago. The regime and Iranian forces opposed this. They said that Kurds are locals here, and we don't want the Kurds to leave here. The Russians had to accept this situation."

 

BLACKMAIL DID NOT WORK

 

Zilan, who later stated that Russia conveyed their demands in the meetings they held with the Kurds, continued as follows: "One of them was, 'Do not interfere with Efrîn. Hand over this region to the Regime'. The Kurds did not accept it. The Russians turned their faces to Eyn Isa. Then they said 'Hand over Eyn Isa to the regime and we will protect you from the Turks'. But the Syrian Democratic Forces (QSD), the main force here, did not accept this either. Kurds said, ‘We will leave Eyn Isa to neither the regime nor the Turks. This is a strategic place. If this place is captured by the Turks, the regions of Raqqa, Tabka, Manbij and Kobanê will completely fall apart from each other. We will not accept this." Responding to this, Russians said, ‘Okay, we give a green light to the Turks and they will come." Turkey and paramilitary forces tried to occupy these lands, they couldn't. They had to retreat. At a meeting, the Russians said, ‘We said you cannot withstand the attacks of these forces. But you resisted. You frustrated both us and them." Zilan told that the Kurds were very determined in this matter. In this way, the Kurds could easily oppose the Russian impositions in other regions. The Kurds have an advantage here.

 

THE BLACKMAIL OF THE RUSSIANS

 

Zilan emphasized the importance of HRE's presence in Shehba, the actions of Efrîn and the protection of the people coming from Efrîn, and pointed out that the Russians want to destroy this position of the HRE. Stating that the Russians constantly imposed the removal of HRE from the region, Zilan said: “The people of HRE and Efrîn do not accept this. Now the Russians are blackmailing, saying  that they will withdraw. The Kurds said that they could if they wanted. The Russians withdrew 3 days ago. They came back a day later."

 

CALCULATIONS OF THE USA AND RUSSIANS

 

Reminding that the situation in question had been experienced in Til Temir in the Fırat Region before, Zilan said: "The Russians told they will withdraw again and the Turks will come back in. They did. It lasted for 24 hours. There is a balance here. USA handed over the Euphrates region to the Russians during Trump administration. USA wants its position back and Russians are blackmailing, claimining they will withdraw. USA and Kurds are ok with this. But the Russian are not withdrawing. The Russian doesn't want USA to fill its gap. They are calculating to fill these gaps."

 

MA / Nazım Daştan