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The Adana agreement can open a way to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to make concessions, Nidal Kabalan, the former Syrian ambassador in Turkey, said during an interview on January 27.
“Reintroduction of Adana agreement between Syria and Turkey is an effort to restrict Turkey’s expansionist plans in Syria,” Kabalan, who left Turkey in late 2011, told the Russian Sputnik news agency.
The Syrian diplomat added that if Russia, Iran and Syria can guarantee the security of the country’s border, Turkey’s military deployment in Syria will be called off automatically.
Ankara and Damascus signed the Adna agreement in 1998 when the two countries were on the brink of war. Under the agreement, Damascus committed to prevent terror activities against Turkey. The agreement also included terms on cooperation in the fight against terrorism and establishing a monitoring committee.
“Ankara and Damascus can open dialogue over this security agreement and make cooperation against terror groups,” Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said referring to the Adana agreement after his recent meeting with Erdogan.
Putin’s remarks were welcomed by Erdogan, who said that the agreement could justify a Turkish military operation against Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria. However, Syria rejected the Turkish President’s claims and stressed that Ankara is violating the agreement.
“The Turkish regime since 2011 has been violating this agreement through supporting terrorism and financing, training and facilitating passage of terrorists into Syria or through occupying Syrian territories,” a Syrian diplomat said on January 26.
Local observers believe that Erdogan is planning to use the agreement as an excuse to restore his relations with the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Putin’s remarks confirm that Russia is interested in such a step.
