Skirmishes between Syrian and Turkish troops

1 Iraq

At least 18 people died when the Iraqi police dispersed sitting protesters in Karbala, in the central part of the country. The protests are directed against the corruption and economic problems — the ‘Al Arabiya’ TV channel reported on Tuesday while citing their sources. According to the ‘Al Arabiya’ — the police used firearms while trying to disperse the protesters. The ‘Al Hadas’ TV Channel reports that about 30 people died. The police denied the deaths of both the protesters and the police officers. On Monday, the «Mavazin News» website reported, while citing the data from the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, that at least 82 people died as a result of the unrest in the country since the end of the last week.

2. Syria

The Syrian opposition prepared its own draft constitution for the country — the co-chairman of the opposition in the constitutional committee, Hadi Albahr, told to the RIA NEWS. “We are trying to come up with a system that takes into account the current events in Syria. It should be consistent with our vision of Syria in the future. It is necessary to take into account the Syrian situation. We must come up with something special that suits the Syrian people and our country» — he explained. According to him, the draft constitution of the opposition wasn’t submitted to the UN special envoy Geir Pedersen since »it is an inter-Syrian process».

3 Russia — Tajikistan

The Russian troops gifted a batch of military equipment and weapons to the Tajik Armed Forces, the total cost of which is about 320 millions of rubles — TASS reports while citing the press service of the Central Military District of Russia. The ceremony took place in the city of Dushanbe, after the completion of the last military exercises of the Organization of the Collective Security Treaty, «Enduring Brotherhood — 2019». According to the commander of the Central Military District, Alexander Lapin, Russia considers Tajikistan to be a key ally in the Central Asian region. Thus, Russia provides assistance in the matter of the enhancement of the defense potential of Tajikistan as part of the program of modernization of the local national armed forces.

4. Ukraine — the LPR

The Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadim Pristayko announced the start of the withdrawal of the military forces in the settlement of Zolotoy, in accordance with the agreement reached earlier by the contact group, gathered to resolve the situation in east of Ukraine. «The withdrawal of forces near the village of Zolotoy is happening right now. We will start today. We had to delay it because it isn’t a simple withdrawal — it must be prepared and monitored by the OSCE» — TASS quoted Vadim Pristayko. According to him, the process of withdrawal of the military forces in the village of Petrovskoye will begin in 7-10 days. He added that the date of the meeting of the Norman format has been determined. It is awaiting the final agreement by all sides. The start of the withdrawal of the military forces was confirmed by the representative of the LPR in the political subgroup of the trilateral contact group, Rodion Miroshnik. According to him, the LPR militia and the Ukrainian military have already exchanged the volleys of signal rockets which showed their readiness for the start of the withdrawal of forces near the village of Zolotoe.