Turkey says no plans for talks between Syrian, Turkish presidents
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has no current plans to hold talks with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told HABER TV broadcast on Monday.
“So far, there is no date for such a meeting. Such talks are not planned for the near future. The fact is that it is necessary to create a basis for them first,” according to Kalin.
Foreign ministers of Syria, Turkey, Russia, and Iran met on May 10 in Moscow over efforts to end decades of tension between Syria and Turkey; during the meeting Russia proposed a roadmap for restoring Syrian-Turkish relations to normal.
Kalin added that Turkey and Syria have “three important issues that need to be resolved,” which are fighting terrorism, deporting Syrian refugees in Turkey, and holding negotiations between the Syrian government and the opposition through a political process.
On May 23, Erdogan announced that Turkey will deport one million Syrian refugees to northern Syria.
Turkey, a NATO member, has supported the political and armed Syrian opposition against al-Assad since the beginning of the conflict in Syria and even sent Turkish troops to fight on the ground in north Syria.
Turkey has invaded Syria three times since 2016, occupying large swathes of the country’s north and positioning its armed forces along the contact line in Idlib between the Syrian government and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS – formerly al-Nusra Front), a jihadist group.
Late in December 2022, a trilateral meeting took place between the defense ministers of Turkey, Syria and Russia in Moscow, marking the first high-level meeting between Syria and Turkey since the onset of the Syrian war.