US, Russia compete for approval on Twitter amid Idlib crisis

ANKARA

As tensions continue to rise in the last Syrian rebel bastion of Idlib, Russia and the United States are now battling, in Turkish, on an unprecedented turf: Twitter.

The U.S. Embassy in Ankara posted a video on its Twitter account with the caption “Eyes on Idlib.”

The video’s message voiced solidarity with Turkey and said the U.S. will “use its power for peace in Syria.”

“We stand by Turkey, our NATO ally, who lost its soldiers in this attack,” the message said.

In an interesting turn of events, Russia’s Embassy in Ankara posted a former infographic by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, along with a screenshot of the U.S. Embassy’s video.

The infographic of the news agency includes U.S. President Donald Trump’s budget proposal for the 2021 fiscal year includes major cuts in requested funding-levels for the YPG, the Syrian offshoot of the PKK terrorist organization, compared to the previous year.

In response, the Russian Embassy posted two photos in the tweet, with the caption “The decision is yours” in Turkish language.

U.S. special envoy for Syria James Jeffrey’s visit to Ankara was one of the most talked about topics on social media after the embassy shared the sarcastic content.

Many social media users have shared content stating that Russia also supports the YPG, while some users have published a photo of the YPG representative in Moscow.