Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Foreign Minister of Germany Heiko Maas (not seen) hold a press conference after their meeting at the Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara, Turkey on October 26, 2019. IMAGE: Fatih Aktaş – Anadolu Agency
On August 11, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu revealed that he had a brief meeting with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement meeting in October in Serbia’s capital Belgrade.
Speaking to reporters on the last day of the 13th Ambassadors Conference in Turkey’s capital Ankara, Cavusoglu called for a “reconciliation in Syria.” The call was a step away from Ankara’s former policy on Syria which called for the overthrow of the Damascus government.
“We need to bring the opposition and regime together for reconciliation somehow, there will be no permanent peace otherwise,” the minister said.
Cavusoglu went on to highlight the necessity of a strong central administration in Damascus in order to prevent the disintegration of Syria.
“To prevent the division of Syria, there must be a strong administration in Syria. The will that can dominate every corner of its lands can only be achieved through unity and solidarity,” he told reporters.
The minister said he briefly spoke to Mekdad at the Belgrade summit. He also revealed that the Turkish and Syrian intelligence services had also began communicating. Damascus has not responded to these remarks, yet.
Turkey has been backing Syrian rebels against government forces since the outbreak of the war in Syria in 2011. In the last few years, Ankara became the main military backer of the remaining rebels in the country’s northern region.
Following a recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan talked about intelligence cooperation with the Damascus government against what he called “terrorist groups” in Syria. Later, the Turkish media reported ongoing preparations for a phone call between Erdogan and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Cavusoglu’s surprise remarks, which were likely meant to set the stage for a rapprochement with Damascus, triggered rebels who took to the streets in several Turkish-occupied areas in northern Syria to protest against the shift in Ankara’s policy. The protesters went as far as burning Turkish flag and harassing Turkish military personnel.
On August 12, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement stressing its support to the “political Syrian opposition” and blaming Damascus for the failure of the political process in Syria. The statement was clearly meant to appease the rebels. However, it didn’t backtrack on key issues Cavusoglu and Erdogan talked about, like intelligence cooperation with Damascus.
Russia has been making efforts to restore relations between Turkey and Syria for a few years. Ankara’s current moves in this direction are likely motivated by the growing threat of Kurdish forces in northern Syria. Erdogan may be also trying to resolve the issue of Syrian refugees in Turkey before the elections next year. Many Turkish voters believe that rapprochement with Damascus is the answer to these problems.
FSA is Usa puppet
Erdogan is Putins bitch :-)))
You can say other way round
Turkey needs to stop sitting on the fence Eu refused to take them been waiting years All these other Mickey Mouse countries who gave up their freedom taken in by EU They don’t want an islamic country in the EU USA tried the coup to take out erdogan and failed The west just using turkey they need to go all in with Russia china India and Iran Syria and Iraq will then stabilise and join Most of South America doesn’t want USA controlling them Been going on for over 40 years and where has it got them Colombia for the first time has a left wing president and should join forces with Venezuela Cuba Mexico and soon to be Lula in Brazil and have a truly independent continent without USA interererence
I hope Putin learns from his mistake of alienating the broader Sunni Muslim world. I hope he never repeats the mistake of trying to impose dictatorship on Syria. This will still be unacceptable to Turkey. Assad has to share power with the opposition. If he insists on a totalitarian rule, the Syrian war will continue because Erdogan will not send Syrians back into the hands of a dictator despite his desire to re-establish relations with Assad.
Personally, I don’t think the Syrian war will end anytime soon because Assad is not ready to share power, and Turkey will not normalize ties with a dictatorship in Syria. That’s just the fact guys. All this talk about contacts with Syrian intelligence and top officials is to see where Assad accepts a political solution. If he doesn’t, Turkey will remain in Syria for the foreseeable future and Russia CANNOT bully the Turks into leaving, and neither can the U.S. (at least not without starting a major war).
Putin is bogged down in Ukraine. Only God knows how long that war will take. Modern wars are notorious for dragging on too long. So, Putin’s hand in Syria is weakened. He could not afford a war with Turkey before the Ukraine war. He cannot afford one now. With more Turkish weapons programs coming to fruition, the Turkish military is getting more and more powerful.
America will hurt Russia badly in Ukraine over the course of this war. Turkey could too, but won’t do that unless sufficiently provoked by Moscow. So, it means the Syrian stalemate will continue. Iran too won’t cross Turkey’s red lines in Syria, unless they want to see TB2 and Ankinci drones flying in Yemen. To confront America’s imperialism in the Middle East, Moscow and Tehran need Turkey more than the other way round.
Damascus already has a strong and stable admin. Withstanding 11 years of attacks by the spies and proxies of the US/isreal and nato have seen to that.
The present admin also has more support from its people than any western democracy has yet to manage. Driving a nato wedge between the people and the Syrian admin didn’t work.
As the objective writes above, there will be peace if some rebel leaders and Imams gain political power.
To keep the peace, they will have to rule Syria in a strict way.
Death penalty for having an illegal weapon, ban on gatherings and protest marches, etc.
The population will eventually wonder what this armed conflict was really about.
Few will be wiser and most will notice changes for the worse than before the conflict started.
But then an allah figure is good to have so that they can live in hope of a better future in their fantasy world.
Thanks to Russia at the moment
Peace in the region can bring prosperity, economy, health, food, education, research and development. Chaos in the region is the Washington terrorism.
The struggle for power was there long before the West got involved and will continue when the West withdraws.
Fat lazy imams and the leaders of the various clans are people who love to have power over their own population.
If not everyone can have power, then there will be traditional conflict and war-like conditions.
FSA is the Washington puppy army.
What’s the plan of the otto man?
Go east.