Yesterday, Russia’s state Rossiya 24 television channel and TASS news agency quoted the defense ministry as saying Russian military police and Syrian border guards are to “facilitate the removal” of Kurdish People’s Protection Units fighters and their weapons, as according to the Sochi deal. This would allow Turkey to patrol with Russia in areas inside Syria that were not part of its offensive. Russian military police patroled the key city of Kobani yesterday, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the area of the “safe zone” was calm yesterday. “Turkey’s objective is to kill, displace and occupy the Kurds,” he said, as protesters waved flags and chanted slogans against Ankara’s invading force.

Source: Taipei Times October 23, 2019 15:56 UTC