Turkish Presidency Says Erdogan-Assad Meeting Not Ruled Out

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th May, 2023) The Turkish and Syrian presidents may meet in person under the right circumstances but no date has been set for the meeting, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Monday.

"No date has been set so far ... Such meeting is not ruled out but it is not expected in the short term. It all depends on how the situation unfolds," Kalin said in an interview with A Haber broadcaster.

Turkish and Syrian ministerial officials and intelligence chiefs have been preparing the ground for the summit between Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Syria's Bashar Assad, Kalin said.

Erdogan secured a third term in office on Sunday after defeating opposition challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu at the ballot box.

Kalin told media earlier in the week that the election was an obstacle to the Syrian-Turkish normalization process, but said a summit was possible in the near future once negotiations "mature."

In December 2022, Russia hosted the first talks between the defense ministers of Turkey and Syria in 11 years. A civil war broke out in Syria in 2011. Turkey, which had close relations with Damascus before the conflict, sided with Assad's opponents. Since then, Turkey's relations with Syria have remained difficult. Recently, however, both sides have begun to talk about the possibility of their gradual normalization.