The Kurdish-Arab coalition The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) reached an agreement with the Russian side and began to withdraw its forces from the Syrian-Turkish border in accordance with the Sochi memorandum, the SDF command reported.
“After lengthy discussions with the Russian Federation on our objections to certain provisions of the Sochi memorandum of October 22, we agreed to implement it in order to stop Turkish aggression in northeast Syria,” the command said on its website.
“The SDF will redeploy its forces to new positions in northeastern Syria, diverting them from the Turkish-Syrian border in accordance with the provisions of the memorandum in order to stop bloodshed and protect the region’s inhabitants from Turkish attacks,” it says.
Turkey on October 9 announced the start of its military operation, Source of Peace, in Syria. Her goal was called the fight against Kurdish militants and terrorists of the “Islamic State” (banned in the Russian Federation) in the border areas in northeast Syria. The US and EU countries have criticized this operation.
On October 17, Turkey and the United States entered into an agreement under which Ankara suspended military operations in Syria against Kurdish forces.
On October 22, the Russian Federation and Turkey adopted a memorandum according to which within 150 hours, Kurdish formations should move 30 km from the border with Turkey. Syrian border guards and the Russian military police are called upon to assist in the removal of the Kurds.
After the adoption of the memorandum, the SDS command stated that it has objections to some of its provisions and that it intends to clarify them during consultations with the Russian side.