"This is one of the most alarming moments across the duration of the Syrian conflict. Without urgent action, the risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour," this is how the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres described the latest violence in Syria's Idlib province that took place on Thursday, February 27th. He is referring to an attack by the Syrian army on Turkish forces in northwestern Syria. An attack that killed 33 Turkish soldiers and wounded dozens. The deadliest incident the Turkish army has suffered since 1993. No doubt a devastating loss for NATO’s second largest army- Turkey- that required a serious response. And respond they did. On Friday, Turkey's Defense Ministry Hulusi Akar announced they had hit over 200 Syrian army targets, "destroyed five Syrian regime choppers, 23 tanks, 10 armored vehicles, 23 howitzers, five ammunition trucks, a SA-17, a SA-22 air defense system as well as three ammunition depots, two equipment depots, a headquarter and 309 regime troops."

Turkish forces are present in Idlib as Turkey has established 12 observation posts in the region as part of the 2018 Sochi agreement with Russia. However, following the attack, Russia stated that Turkish forces were in areas they shouldn’t have been. Ankara – and Moscow both exchanged accusations… while Turkey’s Akar claimed that the attack "happened despite the location of our troops being coordinated in advance with Russian officials on the ground." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that if Turkey had communicated their exact location, "the tragedies could have been avoided." It seems despite frequent dialogue between Russian and Turkish officials –  talks have failed to reach an agreement. On Friday, a Russian delegation held a third day of talks in Ankara with Turkish officials – but with no concrete result. Another diplomatic effort was made at the highest level that same day when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The two will potentially meet the first week of March.

Meantime – both Turkey and Russia appeared to be preparing for further tension in Syria. Turkey deployed more troops and military vehicles to the border town of Hatay… while Moscow sent two warships armed with cruise missiles through Istanbul's Bosphorus strait towards the Syrian coast.

In other efforts on Friday, NATO and the United Nations Security Council both held emergency meetings over the  airstrikes in Syria. UN Secretary –General Antonio Guterres called for an “immediate-cease fire,” in the region and NATO expressed its “full solidarity” with Turkey. Turkey however expects more concrete support from NATO, specifically an implementation of a no-fly zone in the region.

In another development regarding Idlib – on Friday, Turkish officials again stated that even though Turkey's refugee policy had not changed, they were not able to prevent migrants from crossing borders any longer… this was against the migrant deal Turkey had sealed with the European Union in 2016. Under the agreement, Turkey was expected to prevent refugees from reaching the EU – especially the Greek islands, in exchange, Ankara was promised 6.6 billion euros in financial aid visa-free travel for Turkish citizens – if Turkey introduced dozens of reforms. On Friday, hundreds of migrants headed towards the Greek border from Turkey’s Edirne and weren’t stopped by Turkish officials – but they were blocked by Greek authorities. Some Greek police used tear gas on the refugees to disperse the crowds. But not tear gas nor the pouring rain that started during the evening was enough to deter the refugees who had arrived at the border. Many of them found themselves stuck between the Turkish and Greek border – at the buffer zone. Some were seen lighting bonfires trying to keep warm in an area with no shelter as the night approached. The EU Foreign Policy Chief Peter Stano stated that the EU expected Ankara to uphold its commitments regarding the migrant deal. Meanwhile, Greek officials increased border security and announced no visitors without legal documents would be allowed to cross into Greece.

President Erdogan also had a phone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel – both of whom condemned Syria's attack on Turkish forces in Idlib. More diplomatic traffic is yet to come in the upcoming days – as the escalation of violence between Ankara and Damascus is no doubt having a much larger impact on the region as a whole.