President Erdoğan says Turkey will not step back in Syria's Idlib

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Wednesday that Turkey will not take a step back in northwest Syria's Idlib region.

"Our biggest problem is that we could not use the airspace [over Idlib]," just south of Turkey's border, Erdogan told his Justice and Development (AK) Party lawmakers in the capital Ankara.

“Hopefully, we will figure out something soon for this.”

He said that Turkey is determined to push Syrian government forces beyond Turkish observation posts.

"We will also provide for the Syrians to return their homes," he added.

Since Turkey and Russia reached a deal in 2018 under which acts of aggression are supposed to be prohibited in Idlib, over 1,300 civilians have been killed in the de-escalation zone.

Following intense attacks by the Assad regime and its allies, over a million Syrians have flocked towards the Turkish border.

Since the eruption of the bloody civil war in Syria in 2011, Turkey has taken in some 3.7 million fleeing Syrians, making Turkey the world’s top refugee-hosting country.