Second Northern Syria Buffer Zone

Arab League initiative I	2011
Arab League initiative II	2011-12
Churkin peace plan	2012
Kofi Annan peace plan (Geneva I)	2012
Lakhdar Brahimi peace plan	2012
U.S.–Russia peace proposal (2013)	2013
Geneva II Mideast peace conference	2014
Staffan de Mistura peace plan	2015
Zabadani agreement	2015
Vienna talks	2015
Geneva III	2016
US-Russia ceasefire proposal (2016)	2016
Geneva IV	2017
Idlib demilitarization	2018
Northern Syria Buffer Zone	2019
Second Northern Syria Buffer Zone	2019
Syrian Constitutional Committee	2019

Second Northern Syria Buffer Zone
Second Northern Syria Buffer Zone
Syrian-Turkish border, Syria
Type	Buffer zone
Length	Sajur River delta to Tall Abyad and Ras al-Ayn to Iraq–Syria border 30km deep excluding Qamishli town
Site information
Controlled by	Syrian Army and Russian Military Police (All buffer zone areas, excluding those between Tell Abyad and Ras al-Ayn); Turkish Armed Forces (In the buffer zone areas between Tell Abyad and Ras al-Ayn);
Open to; the public	No
Condition	Active
Site history
Built by	Syria; Russia; Turkey (10km-deep patrols);
In use	1 November 2019 – present
Events	Syrian Civil War

The Second Northern Syria Buffer Zone, part of the Sochi Agreement^[4]^[5] (Turkish: Soçi Mutabakatı, Russian: Сочинское соглашение), is a buffer zone in northern Syria between the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). It was set up following a memorandum of understanding in the Russian city Sochi on 22 October 2019 by the Russian and Turkish presidents during the 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria. Most of the zone is controlled by the Syrian Army and Russian Military Police, and some by the TAF.^[6]^[1]^[7]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d McKernan, Bethan; Borger, Julian (22 October 2019). "Turkey and Russia agree on deal over buffer zone in northern Syria". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 14 December 2019. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
^ "Putin and Erdogan just did a deal on Syria. The US is the biggest loser". CNN. 23 October 2019. Archived from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
^ Anadolu Agency (1 November 2019). "Turkey, Russia launch first patrols in northern Syria". Hurriyet Daily News. Archived from the original on 1 November 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
^ Afrasiabi, Kaveh (25 October 2019). "Sochi agreement: A Russian overreach?". Middle East Eye. Archived from the original on 16 November 2019. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
^ "Soçi Mutabakatı - Erdoğan: Rusya, terör örgütlerinin güvenli bölgeden çıkarıldığı bilgisini yetkili mercilerimize verdi" (in Turkish). BBC. 29 October 2019. Archived from the original on 1 November 2019. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
^ "Memorandum of Understanding between Turkey and Russia on northern Syria". The Defense Post. 22 October 2019. Archived from the original on 24 October 2019. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
^ "Turkey, Russia reach deal for YPG move out of Syria border area". www.aljazeera.com. Archived from the original on 24 October 2019. Retrieved 24 October 2019.