Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated on Friday there is no obstacle to the restoration of diplomatic relations between Turkey and Syria.
There is no reason for it not to happen. Just as we kept our ties very lively in the past, we even held talks between our families with Assad, it is certainly not possible to say this will not happen again in the future, it can happen, the Turkish leader said.
The comments of Erdogan came just days after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad also made similar statements during a meeting with Russian Presidential Special Envoy Alexander Lavrentiev. The Syrian president “affirmed Syria’s openness to all initiatives related to the relationship between Syria and Turkey, based on the sovereignty of the Syrian state over all its territories on the one hand, and combating all forms of terrorism and its organizations on the other hand,” according to AP News.
Damascus and Ankara have been seeking to reach reconciliation in 2023 through talks sponsored by Assad’s main backers Russia and Iran, but the ministerial meetings have so far been unsuccessful. Therefore, the recent messages of both heads of state indicate the desire of the two neighbouring countries to end tensions and normalise relations.
Syria-Turkey relations deteriorated in 1998 when Turkey accused Syria of supporting the PKK, a terrorist group responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in its long-running terrorist campaign against Turkey. Despite, the Turkish government has previously voiced to restore ties with Damascus if progress comes in the fight against terrorism.
Tensions flared further in 2011 with the outbreak of the Syrian civil war and the subsequent influx of more than four million migrants. Turkey backed opposition forces trying to topple Assad and conducted several cross-border military operations against militants it said threatened its national security and formed a “safe zone” in northern Syria, where Turkish troops are currently present. The Syrian government has also repeatedly denounced Ankara’s control over its territory.
Ankara is particularly concerned about this as the government faces growing domestic pressure to repatriate millions of Syrian refugees amid a sharp economic downturn and rising anti-refugee sentiment.
