Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said this Tuesday that efforts to normalize relations with Turkey has so far been unsuccessful.
During a speech in the Syrian parliament this Tuesday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rebuked Syria–Turkey normalization talks and described it as unsuccessful efforts that have yield ‘no results’ so far.
Referring to recent conciliation efforts by Russia and Iraq to normalize ties between Damascus and Ankara, Assad said to the lawmakers that “the initiatives did not yield any results worth mentioning despite the seriousness and genuine keenness of mediators.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has good relations with both Erdogan and Assad and has been trying to facilitate a meeting between the two leaders to restore ties. Iraq has also helped facilitate negotiations.
“The solution is openness. Restoring a relationship requires first removing the causes that led to its destruction. Syria constantly stresses the necessity of Turkey’s withdrawal from the lands it occupies and stop its support for terrorism,” Assad also said. In 2016, a few years after the civil war in Syria began, Turkey occupied territory in northern Syria and support mercenary groups to fight alongside its troops against Kurdish forces that Ankara describes as terrorists.
Relations between the two countries went into a stalemate after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his country would be part of the US, Israeli, and Gulf-backed regime change war launched against Syria in 2011.
Since then, Turkey has been providing anti-government forces in Syria with weapons, funding, and training to continue fighting against Assad’s government in Damascus. These forces include the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, and ISIS.
Erdogan’s rapprochement with Assad, a failed project so far!
It was back in July when in line with his efforts to normalize ties with neighbors, Erdogan said he would extend an invitation to the Syrian president “any time” for possible talks to restore relations.
Noting that he is open to meeting the Turkish president, Assad said later that month that a mere visit is not the point while Turkey’s “illegal occupation of Syrian territory still continues,” and that it all “depends on the encounter’s content.”
But Ankara has said that it remains committed to supporting its proxies in Syria. “We are not changing our position regarding the Syrian opposition. The Syrian opposition’s relations with the regime are based on their own free decision, their own free choice,” Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan said last week.
While acknowledging these groups fight alongside the Turkish army, Fidan also noted that “it is not possible for us to forget this sacrifice … It is out of the question for us to forget these sacrifices and let them down.
