Russia, Türkiye, Syria and Iran plan to hold a meeting soon to discuss the normalization efforts between Ankara and Damascus, according to Russian state agency TASS citing Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“We made great effort in foreign and defense ministries to hold meetings last year to discuss conditions that could lead to the normalization of relations between Syria and Türkiye,” Lavrov told RT in an interview on Saturday.
“We now believe it would be reasonable to prepare another meeting. I am sure that it will take place in the foreseeable future,” Lavrov said.
Türkiye severed ties with Syria in 2011 after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war. Ankara backed President Bashar Assad’s opposition and deployed troops to Syria’s north to assist the opposition forces and stave off PKK/YPG terrorists.
Syria’s war began after the repression of anti-government protests in 2011 and has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions.
Türkiye hosts some 3.2 million Syrian refugees out of a population of 85 million, according to United Nations data.
Since 2022, top Syrian and Turkish officials, defense and foreign ministers, as well as intelligence chiefs, have met for Russia-mediated talks, with Moscow pushing for a detente.
The last talks in Moscow, including Tehran, fell apart in May 2023.
Russia is still trying to facilitate a meeting between the two countries’ leaders to mend ties. Iraq also said in July that it may seek to try to bring the two leaders together.
In July, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he might invite Assad to Türkiye “at any moment,” in a sign of reconciliation.
His invitation came after the Syrian leader last month said Damascus was open to all initiatives to revive Turkish-Syrian relations “as long as they are based on respecting the sovereignty of the Syrian state over all its territory and fighting all forms of terrorism.”
Assad views the Syrian opposition as terrorists.
Later in July, he made clear that while he wants Turkish troops to withdraw from Syria, that was not a precondition for talks.
Türkiye says having the PKK/YPG immediately across its border is a grave concern for Turkish border towns that suffered from PKK/YPG attacks in the past.
The YPG is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK, a terrorist group responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in its decadeslong terror campaign to achieve so-called Kurdish self-rule in southeast Türkiye and some parts of northern Syria and Iraq.
The YPG exploited the power vacuum during civil unrest to occupy swathes of land and create a self-styled entity in northeastern Syria. The terrorist group has also found a major ally in the U.S. against Daesh.
