Baris Seckin, Yusuf Ozcan
February 28, 2020•Update: February 28, 2020
ROME
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday condemned the recent developments in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province as a "humanitarian scandal".
Speaking at a joint news conference along with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte following a summit in the Italian city of Napoli, Macron said: “The attacks by [Bashar al-] Assad and his supporters are not fight against terrorism but a humanitarian scandal.”
He said the violations of the international humanitarian law and attacks against civilians are unacceptable.
In September 2018, Turkey and Russia agreed to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.
But more than 1,300 civilians have been killed in attacks by the regime and Russian forces in the de-escalation zone since then as the cease-fire continues to be violated.
The de-escalation zone is currently home to 4 million civilians, including hundreds of thousands displaced in recent years by regime forces throughout the war-torn country.
More than 1.7 million Syrians have moved near the Turkish border due to intense attacks.
Since the eruption of the bloody civil war in Syria in 2011, Turkey has taken in some 3.7 million Syrians who fled their country, making it the world’s top refugee-hosting country.
*Writing by Sena Guler
