The Turkish Foreign Minister announced his country’s willingness to cooperate with the Syrian regime on “terrorism” and “immigrants”.
Faraan: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu spoke in a news conference about the possibility of his country cooperating with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on “terrorism” and “immigrants” “without officially recognizing him”.
“We are working with the Taliban in Afghanistan, although we have not yet recognized them to prevent the country from collapsing, the spread of terrorists and the growing number of refugees,” he told CNN Turk. “Therefore, we also consider it useful to cooperate with the Assad regime without recognizing it.” Çavuşoğlu claimed that his country supports the territorial integrity of Syria. Meanwhile, the Syrian army has recently started a war with the People’s Defense Units (YPG), which intends to divide Syria.
“It is impossible for us to support the disintegration of Syria and the terrorist organization of the People’s Defense Units / Kurdistan Workers’ Party due to the instability of our relations with the regime,” he added. “Because these issues are related to the intelligence services, and meetings at the intelligence level between the two countries have been held in the past in this regard.”
The Turkish foreign minister has expressed a desire to co-operate with Damascus, which until last year took a hostile stance seeking to remove Assad from the pyramid of power. In such an atmosphere, a recent report by Turkish sources on Ankara’s efforts to revive relations with Damascus raises the possibility of normalizing relations between the two sides in the not-too-distant future, especially as some analysts say the Turkish president will win the presidential election. The revival of its relations with the Arab countries must first pass through the gates of Syria.
According to Fars, Hurriyet newspaper recently reported that Ankara had sent messages to Damascus before the Syrian president’s recent visit to the UAE regarding the ongoing talks in the Syrian government to normalize relations with Syria. Hürriyet – Damascus has been asked to seize the opportunity of Russia’s involvement in the Ukraine war in order to create space for improved relations between Ankara and Damascus. “The balanced policy that Turkey has recently pursued and the role that Ankara has played in recent months, especially in the face of the Ukraine war, have made it time to resolve the problems with Syria,” the daily Hurriyet reported.
