Turkish Presidency Official Says Only Russia Can Help Normalize Turkey-Syria Relations

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th March, 2023) Russia is in a unique position to facilitate rapprochement between Turkey and Syria being a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a friend to both countries, Cagri Erhan, a member of the Turkish Presidency's Security and Foreign Policies Council, told Sputnik in an interview.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, there is an ongoing effort to set up a quadripartite meeting among the foreign ministries of Iran, Turkey, Syria and Russia in order for Ankara and Damascus to mend ties.

"I believe that it is not Russia and Iran, but Russia itself who would help further development of Turkish-Syrian relations. Because as a regional power Iran cannot play a mediator role because Iran has its own interests in Syria and other parts of the middle East. But Russia as a P5 country and close friend of both Turkey and Syria can help for the development of these relations," Erhan said.

Even if the process ends up taking time, the situation is still an improvement from six months ago, when there was no discussion about rapprochement between Damascus and Ankara, the Turkish official said.

"Of course there are some expectations on Turkish side and some expectations on Damascus side. There are three important issues which will be discussed and are being discussed. The most important issue for Turkey is the terrorist activities, not only PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) but all kinds of terrorist activities. The second most important thing is the Syrian refugees in Turkey.

They are more than 3,5 million now. Whether they will go back to their country or stay there (in Turkey). It is an important issue. And the third one of course is the territorial integrity of Syria," Erhan continued.

The war in Syria has been going on since 2011, with President Bashar Assad's forces fighting various armed insurgent groups. Since 2016, the Turkish armed forces have been also conducting air and ground operations in Syria against the PKK, which wants to establish a Kurdish autonomy in Turkey. Damascus has repeatedly called the presence of Turkish forces on the Syrian border illegal and urged Ankara to withdraw its troops.

In 2017, Russia, Turkey and Iran launched a mediation group on the Syrian settlement in Astana. In January 2018, the Russian city of Sochi hosted a congress of the Syrian national dialogue, the first such attempt since the start of the conflict to gather an inclusive pool of Syrian political forces. The main result of the Congress was the decision to create a Constitutional Committee, which operates in Geneva and whose main task is to prepare a constitutional reform in Syria.

In December 2022, the defense ministers of Russia, Syria and Turkey held trilateral talks in Moscow to discuss ways to resolve the Syrian crisis. The negotiations marked the first official meeting between the Turkish and Syrian defense chiefs in 11 years. In the same month, Ankara suggested that the Turkish, Syrian and Russian foreign ministers held a meeting in February 2023, possibly in a third country.