Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed at a press conference in Washington on Thursday that he made efforts two weeks ago to meet with President Bashar al-Assad.
He stated: “Two weeks ago I invited Mr. Assad to hold a meeting in my country or in third countries, and our foreign minister has been assigned to work on this issue,” according to the Russian agency Novosti.
“We want to launch a new process and overcome the negatives in relations with Syria.”
Syria Denies Coordination with Turkish Party to Visit Damascus
Erdogan also said on Thursday in a video message marking the 29th anniversary of the genocide in Bosnian Srebrenica: “Our main goal is for Syrian territory to be completely free of terrorism and to become a prosperous country ruled by Syrians,” according to the Turkish news agency Anadolu.
The Turkish Homeland Party confirmed on Wednesday, July 11, the presence of international intelligence services that impede the process of Syrian-Turkish rapprochement and the meeting between President Assad and Erdogan.
The Syrian newspaper Al-Watan on Thursday quoted Syrian sources as saying that there is no communication with any Turkish party, whether opposition or supporter.
It is noteworthy that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed since the beginning of last week his intention to meet with President Assad, without these statements being reflected on the reality on the ground in Syria. Ankara controls several areas in northern Syria after launching three military operations, “Euphrates Shield, Olive Branch, and Peace Spring,” and indicates that it aims from these operations to prevent the spread of a “terrorist” entity on its borders with Syria, as Turkey considers the “Kurdish units” deployed in those regions as “terrorist organizations.”
For its part, Damascus confirms that its main demand for rapprochement with Ankara is the return of all its territory to its control. On June 4, Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said: “The basic condition for any Syrian-Turkish dialogue is to declare Turkey its readiness to withdraw from our territory,” stressing that “relations between the two countries will not be normalized unless Turkey says in broad daylight that it will withdraw from Syrian territory.”
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
