Turkey relies on meetings between Damascus, Ankara before elections
DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday that his country relies on negotiations between the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad before the date of Turkish presidential elections on May 14.
Cavusoglu has not set an exact date for the next quadripartite meeting of the foreign ministers of Syria, Turkey, Russia and Iran in Moscow.
However, he said, in a statement, that a meeting of the Presidents of Syria, Russia, Iran, and Turkey for normalizing relations between Ankara and Damascus could be held early May.
His statement comes as Moscow is scheduled to hold a quadripartite meeting of intelligence and defense officials on the same day.
Cavusoglu responded positively to a question about whether Ankara relies on negotiations between Erdogan and al-Assad before the elections.
At the same time, he noted that Turkey does not plan to withdraw its forces from Syria, saying that “our national security is more important than anything else, and we pay the price here so that our land is safe. We have no claims in Syrian territories.”
Turkey launched three military operations against northern and northeastern regions in Syria. The first was the so-called ‘Euphrates Shield’ operation in 2016, which led to the occupation of Jarablus and al-Bab; the second was dubbed ‘Olive Branch’ in 2018 and occupied Afrin region; while the third was named ‘Peace Spring’ in 2019 which resulted in the occupation of the two cities of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tel Abyad.