Turkey to expel Syrian opposition – Iranian agency
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Sunday, private Iranian news agency Tasnim publicized a news about Turkey requesting Syrian National Coalition to leave the country.
This request comes in a time when Turkey is reconsidering its ties with the Syrian government.
Turkey has backed and supported factions of the Syrian opposition, known as Syrian National Army (SNA), against the Syrian government since eruption of the Syrian war in 2011.
In a meeting between a Turkish official and Salem al-Meslet, president of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, held last week, the official reveals about his country’s intention to “rebuild its relations with Damascus and that the Syrian opposition forces ought to accept reality,” according to Tasnim.
This fact leaves one option for the opposition to “find a replacement country and halt all of their political and media activities in Turkey,” it added.
During the meeting, the Syrian opposition agreed to Turkey’s request and proposed alternatives for a replacement.
Al-Meslet suggested Saudi Arabia, while Abdulrahman Mustafa, the head of the Interim Government has proposed Jordan.
Lately, talks about normalization between Turkey and Syria and about reconciliation between the Syrian government and the opposition have successively released by Turkish officials.
On August 11, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that he had held a short talk with his Syrian counterpart, Faisal Mekdad, a while ago.
“We have to somehow bring opposition and the regime in Syria together to reach an agreement. Otherwise, there will be no lasting peace,” he added.
As a result, areas held by Turkey and the opposition witnessed anger demonstrations against the Turkish proposal describing it as “betrayal.”
As protesters set the Turkish flag on fire, a thing that angered the opposition and held it to vow to hold those who insulted the flag accountability.
On July 27, Cavusoglu said that his country would provide all kinds of political support to the Syrian government in terms of fighting “terrorism.”
Earlier on April 20, Cavusoglu hinted at the possibility of security talks with the Syrian government. However, the Syrian government denied such cooperation saying, “There can be no cooperation in the fight against terrorism with a terrorist regime that supports, trains and spreads terrorism in the region and the world,” said SANA, the Syrian state-run news agency on April 22.