Turkey waves with restoring ties, Syria denies
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet publicized news over discussions that were underway to build new ties between Turkey and Syria, while the Syrian government refuted on Wednesday.
On April 4, Hurriyet revealed that the discussions to revive the Syrian-Turkish ties were taking place in the Turkish city of Ankara insisting on three topics to tackle preserving the unitary structure, the unity of the Syrian territories, and ensuring the security of refugees returning to their country.
Turkey has supported the civil war against Assad for eleven years and supported Syrian opposition factions, it keeps thousands of troops in Syria where it runs dozens of military posts and bases.
Under the pretext of preserving the national security, Turkey, with the support of Syrian opposition factions, has launched two military operations against Afrin in 2018 (Olive Branch) and against Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad in 2019 (Peace Spring) displacing hundreds of thousands of people, as it is continuing targeting areas in north and northeast Syria in addition to building settlements on Syrian parts it seized and implementing the policy of demographic change.
Despite the aforementioned facts, Turkey claimed that “Syria’s unity is of particular importance”.
This news followed al-Assad’s visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last month that indicated al-Assad needed to take new initiatives and create new support, Hurriyet quoted sources as saying.
The sources added that Turkey could turn this process in its favor particularly in the field of the return of at least half of the refugees residing in Turkey to their country.
In response, figures of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the Syrian government denied, on Wednesday, the news circulated by Hurriyet newspaper.
The pro-government al-Watan newspaper cited the figures of Ministry as saying the news was “flagrant propaganda with the oncoming Turkish presidential election.”