Turkish army minimizes movement of its troops in Syria due to COVID-19 measures

ANKARA

Turkey’s Defense Ministry on April 5 announced that personnel and troop movements in Syria were kept to a minimum within the scope of coronavirus measures.

“From the first moment our troops in the regions of Syrian operations have been regulated to make entry and exit to the operation areas with the permission of the army commander so that personnel and troop movements are reduced to a minimum unless it is mandatory,” Colonel Olcay Denizer said in a videoconference.

He reminded that a “COVID-19 Struggle Center [COMMER]” was established within the ministry. Elaborating on the measures taken against the outbreak, he said for the cases of discharge from military service a detailed examination is carried out 14 days before the departures of the soldiers and they are kept under monitoring for those two weeks.

Reminding that the Turkish-Russian joint land patrol was carried out in the secure corridor in Idlib on March 15 and March 23, Denizer said, “The third patrol will be coordinated and executed according to the weather conditions.”

A total of 80 terrorists were neutralized as part of cross-border and domestic anti-terror operations over the past month he said, noting that a total of 52 terror posts, shelters and cellars used by terrorists were also destroyed as part of operations.

Turkish authorities often use the word “neutralize” to imply the terrorists in question either surrendered or were killed or captured.