Turkish Foreign Minister Says He Could Meet With His Syrian Counterpart In Moscow Next Week

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 May 3, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced that he could meet his Syrian counterpart, Faisal Mekdad, in the Russian capital, Moscow, on May 3 as a part of the ongoing normalization process between the two countries.

Russian and Iranian foreign ministers, Sergey Lavrov and Hossein Amirabdollahian, will also attend the meeting, the minister told Turkish broadcaster NTV, adding that the date of the ministerial level meeting was not final yet but was highly likely before May 14 general elections in Turkey.

Cavusoglu stressed the need for cooperation in fighting terrorist organizations, underlining that Ankara had “no eye on Syrian territories.”

Asked about whether Turkey will pledge to withdraw its troops from northern Syria at the talks, Cavusoglu said such a move could be implemented as a final step once Syria maintains complete stability.

Damascus has repeatedly called on Ankara to withdraw its troops from Syria’s northern regions in the course of the normalization process, which is sponsored by both Russia and Iran.

Late in April, Moscow hosted a quadrilateral meeting between the defense ministers of Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iran, where the sides discussed the “concrete steps” needed to normalize Turkish-Syrian relations. The fight against “terrorist groups” in Syria and stepping up efforts to return Syrian refugees to their countries were also discussed.

The Turkish-Syrian normalization process saw a major breakthrough in December when the defense ministers of Ankara and Damascus met in Moscow for the first time since the outbreak of the Syrian war, which turned the two former allies against each other. Later in early April, Moscow hosted another meeting between the deputy foreign ministers of the two countries.

The upcoming foreign ministers meeting will not likely result in a full agreement. However, it will help set the ground for a summit between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, if the latter wins the upcoming elections.

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