The foreign ministers of Russia, Syria, Turkey and Iran have met in Moscow (Russian Foreign Ministry)
On May 10, the foreign ministers of Russia, Syria, Turkey and Iran met in Moscow for high-level talks on the normalization process between Ankara and Damascus.
In his opening speech, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed hope that the meeting would pave the way to drafting a road map for normalizing Turkish-Syrian relations. The minister said that he sees Moscow’s task as “not only in consolidating politically the progress that has been made, but also in determining general guidelines for further movement”.
Ankara and Damascus were close regional allies before the outbreak of the war in Syria in 2011. Turkey was quick to join the calls for the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad and his government. It later moved to arm and train rebels, then sent its military to occupy vast parts of Syria’s northern region under the pretext of fighting Kurdish forces.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency quoted Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad as saying after the meeting that “despite all the negatives of the past years, there is an opportunity” for Damascus and Ankara to work together.
Mekdad went on to stress that the priority for Damascus is ending the presence of all foreign militaries on Syrian territory, including that of Turkey.
“Without progress in this matter, we will remain stagnant and will not reach any real results,” the minister said.
From his side, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter that he stressed the need for “cooperation in the fight against terrorism and working together to establish the basis for the return of Syrians” during the meeting.
“Taking the political process in Syria forward and protection of Syria’s territorial integrity” were the other issues discussed, the minister added.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement after the meeting that there had been a “positive and constructive atmosphere” and that the countries’ deputy foreign ministers would be tasked with preparing a roadmap to advance Turkish-Syrian relations.
The foreign ministers’ talks were preceded by two rounds of talks between the defense ministers and intelligence chiefs of Turkey and Syria in December and April. The talks could help set the ground for a breakthrough summit between President al-Assad and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, if the latter wins the upcoming elections.
Overall, the Turkish-Syrian normalization process appears to be gaining momentum, despite some sharp disagreements between the two sides especially on the issue of Turkish military presence on Syrian territory.
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