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What pushed Turkey to seek Patriots in Idlib?
Summary
A look back at the escalation in north-west Syria that led Ankara to ask Washington for air defences in February 2020.
What was driving the escalation in north-west Syria on 22 February 2020? The answer lay in events of the preceding days, when fighting in Idlib Governorate drew Turkey into direct losses.
On 20 February 2020, Turkish-backed rebels launched an offensive in Idlib against government forces, as part of the wider fighting in the Northwestern Syria offensive that ran from December 2019 to March 2020. The same day, a Russian air strike killed two Turkish soldiers and injured five others. Turkey said a retaliatory strike killed 50 Syrian troops. Several tanks and armoured personnel carriers were destroyed near the village of Nayrab.
Also on 20 February 2020, Turkey formally asked its NATO ally, the United States, to deploy Patriot surface-to-air missile systems on the Syria–Turkey border. The stated aim was to deter Syrian and Russian air strikes on Turkish troops.
By 22 February 2020, then, the picture was of a conflict in which Turkish forces were exposed to air attack, Ankara had responded with force, and it was seeking allied air defences to protect its soldiers along the border.
