After Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met in Moscow in a six-hour meeting, a ceasefire is declared between Turkey and Russia.
Erdogan was said that the ceasefire started at 00.01 Thursday night. He made it clear that he will send forces to attack Syria via Idlib, vowing more defensive action as well.
But Putin remarked that Russia did not agree with Turkey, hoping it would serve to lessen tension at Idlib. It will end the fighting and lessen suffering of the civilian population and prevent a crisis.
With the ceasefire starting, Turkish troops were able score 21 Syrian troops as casualties, with two artillery pieces and two missile launchers were knocked out, This was for the death of two Turkish soldiers on Thursday at Idlib.
Over 300 civilians and 100 children are the death count from military action last December at Idlib.
Worst collateral damage is the one million people who were forced to go to the Turkish border, living in camps in the open, which is the worst humanitarian crisis in the Syrian civil war, according to the UN.
Both leaders are keen on sending those refugees home and avoid a huge refugee problem.
Turkey and Russia will maintain a secure corridor, on the key east-west highway that is located in Syria's Idlib and have joint patrols on March 15.
In the meeting with the Turkish and Russian foreign ministers, they said the two sides and the secure corridor stretches 6km (3.7 miles) to the north and 6km to the south of the M4 highway.
Further talks between their defence ministers will iron the particulars in a week to clear everything out.
Before the incident, Putin and Erdogan have kept everything under control even if the Syrians were allied to Russia, and Ankara was partial to the opposition in Idlib.
Al-Assad said that Turkey was supporting dissidents, early on Thursday when tension arose between the two leaders,
In an interview, Al-Assad told Russia 24 channel,"Erdogan is unable to tell the Turks why he is sending his army to fight in Syria and why his soldiers are being killed there because the issue has nothing to do with Turkish interests but with his Muslim Brotherhood ideology."
The skirmish in Idlib that lead to the deaths of Turkish soldiers and the tension with Russia was the first expedition by Ankara to go up against Russian backed by Syrian forces.
According to Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, who reported near the Turkish- Syrian border, that Erdogan got huge concession from the Russian Leader.
Ahelbarra was quoted about his opinion on the Putin-Erdogan meeting, which was a victory for Erdogan.
The Turkish got the ceasefire plus the safe corridors and also resettlement of the civilians back into their areas. Without a doubt, the Russian and Turkey ceasefire is a success for Turkey.
