ANKARA, 29 October, 2020 (TON): Turkish military and Russia are heavily involved in ongoing world’s most significant conflicts in a region stretching from Syria to the Caucasus and the Mediterranean.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan strongly criticized Russia for conducting an airstrike that killed dozens of Turkey-backed rebels in Idlib province of Syria.

According to a news agency Erdogan while addressing his lawmakers at the parliament on Wednesday said  “Russia's attack on the training center of the Syrian National Army forces in the Idlib region shows it does not want lasting peace in the region."

In the bloodiest surge in violence since a truce almost eight months ago, air strikes by Damascus regime ally Russia against an opposition military camp in Idlib killed 78 Turkey-backed rebels in northwestern Syria. About 90 were injured by the Russian airstrike which targeted the camp said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Erdogan added that Turkey had the legitimate right to act once again if militants are not cleared along its border with Syria, referring to Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

Turkey sees the YPG group as the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The Turkish army launched Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016, Operation Olive Branch in 2018, Operation Peace Spring in 2019, and Operation Spring Shield in 2020 in northern Syria in order to create a YPG-free zone along its border within the neighboring country.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the EU, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for over 30 years, which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people.

According to the United Nations of the almost one million people displaced in the last Idlib offensive, more than 200,000 have returned home.

Idlib is a war-battered province and home to more than three million people, has remained fragile with intermittent bombardment in the area from both sides.

Russia and Turkey are the two sides of the same coin. Though both countries are also waging proxy battles, it is rare to see them come head-to-head.