73,000 Syrians have returned to Syria's Idlib after ceasefire

 'Around 73,000 Syrians have returned to the Syrian governorate of Idlib following the ceasefire agreement reached between Turkey and Russia in early March.

 The Director of the Syrian Response Coordinators, Muhammad Hallaj, said “Some of the displaced Syrians have returned to their homes immediately after the Syrian régime operations ceased.”

 Hallaj explained that many of the displaced people preferred to stay in the camps near the Syrian-Turkish border due to the régime forces’ control over their villages and towns.Civilians started to return from densely populated camps to fix their houses and shops

 According to Hallaj nearly one million Syrians have been displaced from since October 2019, as a result of the Syrian régime’s bombing of the area.



 Turkey and Russia agreed on a ceasefire commencing on 12 January. However, the Assad régime and its allies defied the agreement and launched continuous attacks.

 In response, the Turkish and Russian presidents gathered in Moscow on 5 March to reach a new deal, and a fresh ceasefire went into effect the following day. Although régime forces have violated the deal at several points, the parties currently remain loyal to the ceasefire.

 Russia supports Assad's forces, while Turkey backs militants who have opposed him for nearly nine years.



 Following the Astana talks of 2017, Turkey, Russia, and Iran agreed to turn Idlib province and three other regions into “de-escalation zones”, where acts of aggression were prohibited.

 However, the régime and Iran-backed foreign terror groups captured three of the zones with support of Russian airstrikes, and Idlib became their new target.

 The régime forces intensified its military deployment in September 2018, which paved the way for the Sochi agreement between Turkey and Russia the same month.

 Later on, the Syrian régime, after pausing its aggression, launched a ground offensive in May 2019 and captured south and southeastern Idlib, northern parts and eastern rural areas of Hama, and many settlements of southern and western rural parts of Aleppo.



 Since the Sochi deal, the regime and allies’ attacks killed over 1,800 civilians, and nearly two million people have been displaced due to aggression since early 2019.'