Turkey and Syria’s defense and intelligence chiefs will meet in Moscow on Tuesday as the two countries try to repair ties long strained by President Bashar Al-Assad’s war.
(Bloomberg) — Turkey and Syria’s defense and intelligence chiefs will meet in Moscow on Tuesday as the two countries try to repair ties long strained by President Bashar Al-Assad’s war.
The meeting will also include their counterparts from Russia and Iran, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said.
Turkey will not take a decision that would put Syrians “in a difficult position,” Akar said in a statement published on the defense ministry’s website. “Our approach should be known by everyone.”
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Senior diplomats from the four countries met earlier this month in talks aimed at easing strained ties between Ankara and Damascus. Any rapprochement would be a blow for the US and its European allies, which still have sanctions against Assad and seek to continue isolating him.
Turkey has supported groups that have been fighting Syrian government forces in the war that erupted more than a decade ago.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is seeking reelection next month, has said he’s willing to sit down with Assad to promote peace in the region. He’s also promised his electorate that more Syrians would return home from neighbor Turkey, which houses one of the world’s largest refugee populations of nearly 4 million people.
While Turkey was a staunch supporter of Syrian rebels during the height of the war and regularly condemned Assad and his troops, its rhetoric has shifted. With backing from Russia and Iran, Assad’s government has regained control of much of Syria.
That’s left Turkey to largely focus on Kurdish militants in northern Syria it sees as a threat for their links to the PKK, which has been fighting for autonomy on Turkish soil for decades and is designated a terrorist group by the European Union and US.
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