BISHKEK (TCA) — Officials in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have said both countries are not holding any official negotiations on sending Kazakh and Kyrgyz military to Syria.
Russian media reported that Vladimir Shamanov, head of the Russian Duma’s defense committee, said on June 22 that Russia had asked Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan to send troops to help monitor the de-escalation zones as part of attempts to end six years of bloody civil war in Syria.
There are no official negotiations about sending Kyrgyzstan military to Syria, the country’s Security Council Secretary Temir Jumakadyrov told 24.kg news agency on June 23.
Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry on June 23 said that Kazakhstan is not holding negotiations with anybody about sending its servicemen to Syria.
Turkey, Russia, and Iran are working on a mechanism to monitor the so-called “de-escalation” agreement in Syria, including involving U.S. troops in the establishment of zones of responsibility, a Turkish official said, RFE/RL reported.
“We (Turkish forces) will probably be most prominent in the Idlib region with the Russians; mostly Russia and Iran around Damascus,” Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was quoted on June 22 by the Hurriyet newspaper as saying.
Kalin also said Russia had asked the two Central Asian countries about sending troops to Syria.
Russia, Iran, and Turkey agreed on a plan to set up four “de-escalation zones” in Syria where forces of President Bashar al-Assad’s government have been fighting U.S.-backed rebels.
