Financial Times 04Feb2020

Tuesday4 February 2020 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 7

I N T E R N AT I O N A L

L AU R A P I T E L— A N K A R A
C H LO E C O R N I S H— B E I R U T
H E N RY F OY— M O S C O W

Turkey’s president has vowed to make
Syria “pay” for the death of eight Turk-
ish military personnel in Idlib and
accused Russia of turning a blind eye to
escalatingviolenceintheprovince.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at
the regime of Bashar al-Assad and Mos-
cow, the Syrian leader’s main backer,
after Turkish forces came under heavy
shelling yesterday — an attack blamed
ontheDamascusregime.
MrErdogan,whowasinUkraine,said
Turkish forces had launched retaliatory
strikes on Syrian targets. “We are mak-
ing them pay the necessary price, and
we will continue to make them pay,” he
said. The violence in the province was
becoming“unbearable”.
The clash was the bloodiest between
Turkey and Syria since the onset of the
Syrian conflict in 2011, in which Ankara
backed armed groups against Mr
Assad’s regime. Turkey has forged
increasingly close relations with Russia
in recent years but the two are on oppo-
site sides of the conflict in Idlib, the last
rebel-held province in Syria. The latest
attack threatens to test their relation-
ship. In recent weeks, pro-regime
forces, eager to declare victory in the
nine-year conflict, have stepped up
theirassaultontheprovince.
About 3m civilians, many of them ref-
ugees from elsewhere in Syria, are
crammed into the region. At least
520,000 have fled their homes in recent
weeks, according to the World Health
Organization, many heading for the
Turkish border. That has triggered
warningsfromMrErdoganofahumani-
tarian crisis on the doorstep of Turkey,
already home to 3.6m Syrian refugees.
Ankara has told the international com-
munityitcannottakeanymorepeople.
Russian and Syrian jets have pounded
Idlib since April but the attacks have
intensifiedinrecentweeks.
“In terms of numbers of people dis-
placed and the impact on the humani-
tarian situation.. .it’s really signifi-
cant,” said Haid Haid, senior researcher
atChathamHouse,thethink-tank.

The Syrian Observatory for Human

Rights, a war monitor, reported more

than 220 air strikes yesterday alone, an

“insane”number,saidMrHaid.

Mr Erdogan said Turkey had tried to

be patient but matters were becoming

intolerable, with the Syrian regime car-

ryingoutbarrelbombattacksand“Rus-

sia,unfortunately,turningablindeye”.

The Turkish president has used

increasingly tough language with Mos-

cow since the unravelling of a 2018

agreementwithRussiatohalttheblood-

shedinIdlib.Lastweek,heaccusedRus-

sia of no longer being “loyal” to a peace

process known as the Astana talks and

urged Moscow to “give the regime the

necessarywarning”.

Mr Erdogan, appearing with Volody-

myr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president,

criticised Russia’s 2014 takeover of

Crimea and praised the “flourishing”

relationsbetweenAnkaraandKyiv.

Those comments are likely to irk the

Kremlin, which maintains that arefer-

endum held after its troops entered the

peninsulalegalisesitsannexation.

Meanwhile, Mevlut Cavusoglu, Tur-

key’sforeignminister,calledSergeiLav-

rov, his Russian counterpart, who reit-

eratedMoscow’sdemandforthesepara-

tion of terrorists in Idlib from moderate

opposition groups, according to aRus-

sian statement hat did not mention thet

Turkishdeaths.

Moscow earlier confirmed the attack

on the Turks but said Ankara had

deployed them in a de-escalation zone

without informing the Kremlin. There

was no official comment from Damas-

cus but the Syrian war monitor said 13

Syriansoldiershadbeenkilled.

Humanitarian organisations have

warned that civilians are facing the

worstoftheviolence.“Thecitiescloseto

the border are so crowded,” said Mazen

Alloush, who works at the Bab al-Hawa

bordercrossing.

“You can’t find any empty house, the

camps are full and there are tens of

informal camps and there are still peo-

ple living in shelters and mosques. They

don’thaveaplacetostay.”

Turkey has appealed to the west for

help. “If the international community

does not stand with Turkey against

instances of aggression like this one, it

will be faced with yet another refugee

crisis along our borders,” said Fahrettin

Altun,MrErdogan’sdirectorofcommu-

nications.

Additional reporting by Asmaa al Omar in

Istanbul and Roman Olearchyk in Kyiv

Erdogan rages at Assad after troops killed

Turkish president accuses Russia of turning blind eye to Idlib violence and warns of refugee exodus

IDLIB

SYRIA

IRAQ

JORDAN

TURKEY

Damascus

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R I C H A R D M I L N E

N O R D I C A N D BA LT I C C O R R E S P O N D E N T

The Danish security service has accus-

ed Saudi Arabia and Iran ofdragging

Scandinavia into theirlongstanding

conflictafter a foiled assassination att-

empt in Denmarkandclaims of spying.

An Iranian intelligence official wasyes-

terday chargedin absentia ith att-w

empted murder and espionage in con-

nection with a 2018plot targeting het

leaderofanIranianseparatistgroupin a

town60kmsouth-westofCopenhagen.

Danishintelligencealsocharged hreet

senior members of the Arab Struggle

Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz

(ASMLA) — which Tehran regards as a

terroristgroup — with spying for Saudi

ArabiainDenmarkfrom2012to2018.

“This is a very complex case where

Saudi Arabia and Iran have brought

their conflict to Denmark,” said Finn

Borch Andersen, head of the Danish

intelligence and security service. Shia

Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia,have been

locked in a power struggle in the Middle

East for years and often accuse each

otherofseekingtodestabilisetheother.

Tehran accused ASMLA of being behind

a terrorist attack that killed 25 n thei

southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz in

September 2018.Iran’s supreme leader,

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claimed that

SaudiArabiaandtheUnitedArabEmir-

ates had paid the attackers. iyadhR

deniedany involvement. Yesterday,

Jeppe Kofod, Denmark’s foreign minis-

ter, called an emergency meeting ofthe

foreign policy committee and said the

allegedspying wasa “serious and com-

pletelyunacceptablecase”.

Danish intelligence said the three

ASMLA leaders had collected informa-

tionaboutindividualsandcompaniesin

Denmark andother countries for years

and passed it on to Saudi intelligence.

They are also charged with condoning

acts of terrorism bypraising theAhvaz

attack.Theywillappearincourttoday.

Syrian civilians gather at the

Turkish border in Idlib to demand

entry in a symbolic protest AFP/Getty—

Security

Danes blast

Saudi Arabia

and Iran over

spying war

FEBRUARY 4 2020 Section:World Time: 2/20203/ - 18:56 User:john.conlon Page Name:WORLD3, Part,Page,Edition:LON , 7, 1