Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu. Source: the Anadolu Agency.
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the Turkish-Syrian normalization process with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers meeting in India’s capital New Delhi, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on March 1.
The normalization process between Ankara and Damascus gained momentum last December, when the defense ministers and intelligence chiefs of the two countries met in Moscow.
“A number of international issues were discussed, including the situation in Syria. Special attention was paid to the efforts of the countries in the region aimed at normalizing Turkish-Syrian relations, and intensifying joint efforts to eliminate the terrorist threat in Syria,” the ministry said in a statement.
In a Twitter post, Cavusoglu said he discussed regional issues with Lavrov. He also thanked the minister for Russia’s support after the February 6 earthquake, which claimed the lives of more than 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria.
The earthquake delayed the normalization process, but didn’t lead to a full halt. Last week, Mikhail Bogdanov, Russia’s special representative for the Middle East, revealed that work is underway to organize a quadripartite meeting between the foreign ministries of Russia, Turkey, Iran and Syria.
The Turkish-Syrian normalization process was initially sponsored only by Russia. However, an agreement to involve Iran in the process was reached in February.
The upcoming quadripartite foreign ministers meeting could mark the relaunch of Turkish-Syrian relations and help set the ground for a meeting between Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad. Both leaders voiced their readiness to meet in the past.
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That normalization process had better fucking include a troop withdrawal and rescinding support for the FSA terrorists.
There is SNA now. FSA is mostly gone, except for Al Tanf.
JHK says that HTS will defeat all these forces. He is idiot.
Turkey has well learned diplomats and leadership who understand history and they know how to utilize situations and make them into opportunities. It is refreshing to see people in a government who understand history, peoples and are willing to work together to bring prosperity to all parties involved. This is a rare and great strength for a country, in a world of compromised and incompetent people in diplomatic and other leadership positions. We are fortunate to have people like them and Lavrov and Russia: intelligent people looking for realistic, humane, and Just solutions to complex problems. May their work yield results in service of humanity and good will.