Erdogan and Putin Meet as Syria Cease-Fire Nears an End

SOCHI, Russia — The leaders of Turkey and Russia were meeting at this Black Sea resort city on Tuesday, an opportunity for both of them to consolidate their gains in Syria in the wake of President Trump’s sudden withdrawal of American troops.

The meeting began hours before the end of an American-brokered truce between Turkish and Kurdish forces in Syria, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey says his troops have seized more than 900 square miles of territory since invading on Oct. 6.

The negotiations highlight the loss of American influence in the days since Mr. Trump ordered troops to withdraw from northeast Syria, a region controlled by a Kurdish-led militia allied with the United States. The presence of American soldiers there had ensured that other nations did not challenge Kurdish control.

The American retreat created a power vacuum, allowing Turkey to invade. That prompted the area’s Kurdish leaders to turn to the government of Bashar al-Assad, and its main backers, the Russian government, for protection.

This sudden alliance has allowed Syrian government forces back into parts of northeast Syria that they have not entered in half a decade. It has positioned President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as the main power broker in negotiations about the future of the region, a status emphasized by Mr. Erdogan’s hastily planned trip to Sochi, where Mr. Putin has his official summer residence.

The two leaders were expected to discuss whether Turkey will be allowed to expand its sphere of influence beyond the central pocket of formerly Kurdish-held territory that Turkish-led forces have already seized this month.

“With my dear friend Putin, we will discuss the current situation in northern Syria, primarily to the east of the Euphrates,” Mr. Erdogan said to reporters at an airport in Ankara, shortly before departing for Russia.

“We will find the opportunity to discuss the steps to be taken to end the presence of P.K.K./P.Y.D./Y.P.G. in areas where regime elements are positioned,” he added, using a set of acronyms for the Kurdish fighters.

Mr. Erdogan’s goal is to create a buffer zone along the entire length of the Turkish-Syrian border, roughly 20 miles deep, to keep Kurdish fighters from getting within mortar range of Turkey.

Mr. Erdogan views the main Kurdish militia in northeast Syria, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, as a threat to Turkish national security, since the group is an offshoot of a guerrilla movement that has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey.

“We understand Turkey’s concern in connection with the need to ensure its safety and with the need to fight terrorist elements,” the Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov told reporters on Tuesday, ahead of the meeting.

“But we are also expecting that all actions should be proportionate to these concerns and that these actions should in no way make the process of peaceful political settlement in Syria more difficult.”

For Mr. Putin, the meeting with Mr. Erdogan provides an opportunity to solidify and extend Mr. al-Assad’s hold on power.

Kurdish fighters had managed to carve out their own autonomous region, free of government control, amid the chaos of the eight-year civil war. They greatly expanded their territory from 2015 onward, when they became the principal Syrian partner of an American-led coalition working to defeat militants from the Islamic State militant group, also known as ISIS.

As Kurdish fighters won back ISIS-held land, they took over its governance, eventually establishing control over roughly a quarter of Syria.

For years, they acted under American protection, but as soon as Mr. Trump began dismantling that shield, Turkey pounced.

Analysts in Moscow expect Mr. Putin to accept some measure of Turkish control over a buffer zone, though it’s not clear how deep into Syrian territory he would agree for it to extend, or how it would be policed.

Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin foreign policy adviser, told Russian journalists ahead of the meeting that the key goal would be to bring more territory under Mr. al-Assad’s sway — while, he pledged, respecting the rights of the Kurds.

“The most important thing for us is to work toward — as we always do — the long-term stability of Syria and the region, and we believe that this can only be achieved by restoring the unity of Syria,” Mr. Ushakov said on Monday, according to the Interfax news agency. “We expect that the interests of all ethno-religious groups of the Syrian people will be taken into account.”

Before his meeting with Mr. Erdogan was arranged, Mr. Putin was already scheduled to be in Sochi this week to host the leaders of 43 African countries, a first-of-its-kind summit that will offer another measure of Russia’s growing foreign policy ambitions.

The talks between Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Putin are expected to include a working lunch and possibly one-on-one talks, followed by a news conference, Mr. Ushakov said.

Turkey is part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which Russia sees as an adversary. But ties between Moscow and Ankara have rapidly warmed as a result of the war in Syria and growing tensions between Turkey and its longtime allies in Western Europe and the United States.

Mr. Putin, who is eager to undermine the Western alliance, and Mr. Erdogan have already met seven times this year, Mr. Ushakov said.

In July, Turkey defied Western warnings and began taking delivery of a Russian antiaircraft missile system, prompting the United States to cancel Turkey’s purchase of American-made fighter jets. NATO had warned that the purchase could reveal Western technological secrets to Russia, and that the Russian weapons were incompatible with the alliance’s systems.

As American troops crossed the border from Syria into Iraq this week, the Iraqi government faced questions about whether the withdrawal was camouflage for an American buildup in Iraq. The United States military has a large camp in Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, and the troops are going there until arrangements are made for them to move on.

Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper seemed mindful of the Iraqis’ concerns on Monday when he wrote on Twitter, “As we withdraw from NE Syria, we will temporarily reposition those forces in the region outside Syria until they return home.”

The Iraqis had agreed that the Americans could leave Syria through Iraq and then fly out to Kuwait or Doha, according to generals in the Iraqi Joint Command. In a statement, the Joint Command said that it wanted to make clear that “there is an agreement for U.S. troops to enter Iraqi Kurdistan in order to leave Syria, but there is no approval for them to stay in Iraq.”

Earlier this year, Mr. Trump said he wanted troops in Iraq to “watch Iran,” angering Iraqi politicians who said they feared the United States would use Iraq as a launching pad for a war against Iran. The arrival of United States forces from Syria has renewed fears about American intentions.

Anton Troianovski reported from Sochi, and Patrick Kingsley from Istanbul. Alissa J. Rubin contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.