Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian presidential envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev in Damascus on January 12. Source: the Syrian Presidency Office.
On January 12, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that talks with Turkey should be based on the aims of ending the occupation of Syrian territory and halting support for terrorist groups in the war-torn country.
Assad made the remarks during a meeting with Russian presidential envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev in the Damascus. This was the president first comment on the ongoing Russian-sponsored talks with Ankara, which saw a major breakthrough in December when the defense ministers of the two countries met in Moscow.
“The meetings [with Turkey] should be coordinated between Syria and Russia in advance in order to… produce tangible results sought by Syria,” the Syrian Arab News Agency quoted the president as saying.
The president added that the results of the talks should be based on the principle of ending the “occupation” and support for terrorism”.
From his side, Lavrentiev said that Moscow viewed the defence ministers’ meeting “positively” and hoped to develop talks “to the level of foreign ministers.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a live broadcast on the same day that he could meet his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad early in February. Originally, the meeting was supposed to take place in mid-January.
The remarks of Assad and Cavusoglu indicate the presence of some key differences between the two sides. Lavrentiev visit to Damascus was likely meant to address this.
Ankara broke ties with Damascus early on in the Syrian war. Today, it is the main backer of Syrian rebels and its military occupies vast parts of the country’s northern region. Damascus believes that this situation should change in order to restore ties with Ankara.
Syria has emerged as a great victorious power, very strong, together with the whole East and rightly sets the conditions for the Turks who are stunned by the war with the Kurds. Before 2011 Erdogan was a friend of Bashar Al Assad, but after the betrayal he committed by letting thousands and thousands of terrorist rats pass towards Syria, he ruined himself.
a great power hahahaha anything, without the international coalition and Russia Assad would have died today, his army was dismantled by DAESH. Turkey did not let anything pass it is because of the West which let the terrorists go and which did not warn Turkey that there were people with black ideas. too easy to blame Turkey. big lack of knowledge here
Wahhabi Salafi Takfiri rats were exterminated with astronomical numbers. The rich and inhabited part of Syria has always been firmly in Syrian hands. Only Idlib and a part of Aleppo, the rats were in the desert. Erdogan was then pro-American he agreed to pass the rats from Turkey to Syria,
Maliki once hated Assad also but then he cooperated with him against ISIS.
‘IT cimmitted’ You are not talking of HUMAN BEINGS, but of various MERDolfgan, MERDilema, MERDila, MERDusoglu…. All UNHUMAN BEASTS, GENOCIDAL OGRES
The Turks are cruel and cowardly, and they are not great fighters, as the West tells us. In 1922 the Greeks were about to conquer Ankara! then they were recalled internally to Greece. Anatolia is the original homeland of Armenians and Kurds. Turks are not originally from Anatolia.
Most so called Turks are descendants of Hittites and Lydians. The slaughter of 1922 was done by the Soviet-backed Kemal Ataturk.
Hittites were Arians, like Armenians and Kurds. Turks are ural-altaic-mongols. I spoke about the Greek-Turkish war, in which Turks were defeated, in 1922.
Indo-European theory is false. Urartians are language isolated while Armenians are “Indo-European”.
Defeated by whom chicken shit?
😂😂😂
I don’t know if I should laugh or cry reading this. how can you be so ignorant?
Why don’t you just go and jump high clueless idiot 🤡💨 again
IT .donmeh maggot
Ataturk = Donmeh
It is not great power unfortunately. And many factors are to blame.
In my opinion, Syria is among the top 10 military powers in the world. Bashar Al Assad loves his people and has always defended Christians and other minorities from criminal liberator rats.
64th strongest army, according to stats.
It is not true. Then you can speak that Americans won in Vietnam………
Vietnam has much stronger army than Syria.
Dear Assad no problem we want to leave Syria too, but you have to take back all your fellow Syrians, we are not a daycare centre. and then you have to cleanse northern Syria of the PKK/YPG by stopping supplying them with weapons when they want to steal territory from you. after that do what you want in your country we don’t care at all
POOR BEAST, MERDilema and SIMILAR STUFFS! UNHUMAN HYPOCRITE TILL THE BONE!
And you should stop blinking to HTS.
If Assad negotiates with the legitimate oppostion, Turkey will be out of Syria faster than anyone imagines. Without that, it’s impossible to reconcile Erdogan and Assad
Yes, but will Turkey leave HTS?
FINALLY, PRESIDENT ASSAD! CLEAN SURIYA OF ALL UNHUMAN MONSTERS AND KEEP ‘allies’ AT BAY!
Today in Sweden, Kurds hang Erdogan on a rope, sweden is a terrorist country and supports terrorizm.. %90 of kurd are terrorist. Most european countries will pay for kurds
Kurds used the syrian war and with the support of america they created kurdistan in north syria and north iraq, at the recent time kurds trying to steal pieces from southeast Turkey and west iran.. kurds dreaming for the big kurdistan..
Many Kurds are either allied with Turkey, Iran, Iraq or Syria, these actually are American stooges.
Turkish president was hung upside down from a lamp post during a Kurdish protest in Stockholm
The reporting is not quite accurate. Actually, Syria announced it was not ready for the foreign ministers of Syria and Turkey to meet. Turkey should first withdraw all its troops. Given the positive momentum that was building this hesitation appears strange. Surely ending the Turkish occupation is exactly what ought to be achieved by talks. Damascus is now putting the cart before the oxen. Very strange. Is the SAA (+) planning an attack on oppositional militias before the talks to gain more leverage?
There are many militaries in Syria actually.