Erdogan says 'ready' to meet Syria's Assad to restore ties

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has reiterated his readiness to restore ties with Syria after more than a decade of severed relations between the two neighborly countries.

Answering a question about President Bashar al-Assad's recent remarks on the Syrian-Turkish ties, Erdogan said Ankara and Damascus could act to restore bilateral ties.

"There is no reason for it not to happen," Erdogan said, stressing that Ankara had no intention of interfering in the internal affairs of Syria.

"Just as we kept our ties very lively in the past - we even held talks between our families with Mr. Assad - it is certainly not possible (to say) this will not happen again in the future, it can happen," he said after Friday prayers.

On Wednesday, Assad said his government was open to “all initiatives related to the relationship between Syria and Turkey, based on the sovereignty of the Syrian state over all its territories on the one hand, and combating all forms of terrorism and its organizations on the other hand.”

Turkey severed its relations with Syria in March 2012, a year after the Arab country found itself in the grip of deadly violence waged by foreign-backed militants.

In the meantime, Turkey deployed forces in Syria in October 2019 in violation of the Arab country’s territorial integrity.

Ankara-backed militants were deployed to northeastern Syria after Turkish military forces launched a long-threatened cross-border invasion in a declared attempt to push militants of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) away from border areas.

Ankara views the US-backed YPG as a terrorist organization tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey since 1984.

The Kurdish-led administration in northeastern Syria says the Turkish offensive has killed hundreds of civilians, including dozens of children since it started. Turkey has also played a major role in supporting terrorists in Syria ever since a major foreign-backed insurgency overtook the country more than ten years ago.

Now, after over a decade, the two neighboring countries are taking steps toward reconciliation.

Syria’s Assad says will not meet Erdogan, insists on Turkish troops withdrawal

Syria

In April 2023, the defense ministers and intelligence chiefs of Iran, Russia, Syria and Turkey held talks as part of efforts to normalize relations between Ankara and Damascus.

Last August, the Syrian leader underlined that Ankara must put forward a timetable for the withdrawal of Turkish troops from his country for normalization of ties.

The Turkish-Syrian rapprochement comes as several Persian Gulf Arab countries have restored ties with Damascus after the Syrian government forces, with the help of Iran and Russia, managed to win back control of almost all regions from terrorist groups.

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