Long road ahead for Turkiye, Syria as Erdogan shows signs of rapprochement
The Hindu
Turkish and Syrian presidents signal interest in restoring diplomatic ties after over a decade of rupture.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have recently signalled that they are interested in restoring diplomatic ties that have been ruptured for more than a decade.
Mr. Erdogan has said he hopes to arrange a meeting with Mr. Assad soon for the first time since the countries broke off relations in 2011 as mass anti-government protests and a brutal crackdown by security forces in Syria spiralled into a still-ongoing civil war.
Speaking at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Washington on Thursday, Mr. Erdogan said he had called on Mr. Assad two weeks ago to either come to Turkiye for the meeting or to hold it in a third country, and that he had assigned Turkiye’s Foreign Minister to follow up.
Turkiye had backed Syrian insurgent groups seeking to overthrow Mr. Assad and still maintains forces in the opposition-held northwest, a sore point for Damascus.
This is not the first time that there have been attempts to normalise relations between the two countries, but previous attempts failed to gain traction.
Russia, which is one of the strongest backers of Mr. Assad’s government but also has close ties with Turkiye, has been pushing for a return to diplomatic relations.
In December 2022, the Turkish, Syrian and Russian Defence Ministers held talks in Moscow, the first ministerial level meeting between rivals Turkiye and Syria since 2011.