On Wednesday, a landmark quadripartite meeting of foreign ministers of Türkiye, the Assad regime of Syria, Russia and Iran was held in Moscow. Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu represented Türkiye at the meeting, first at this level.
Russia and Iran seek to convince Ankara and the Assad regime to restore their ties through the talks after the two neighbors’ relations soured after the 2011 unrest in Syria escalated into a civil war.
During the meeting, the ministers are expected to exchange views on the normalization of Türkiye-Syria ties and discuss counterterrorism, the political process to end the war in Syria, and humanitarian matters, including the voluntary, safe and dignified return of Syrians who left their home country due to the war and settled in Türkiye.
In a tweet following the meeting, Çavuşoğlu said that at the gathering, he stressed the need for “cooperation in the fight against terrorism, working together to establish the basis for returns of Syrians, taking the political process in Syria forward and protection of Syria’s territorial integrity.”
The meeting was closed to the press while Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave an opening speech. Lavrov expressed hope that the meeting would pave the way to draft a normalizing road map. Lavrov said he sees Moscow’s task as “not only in consolidating politically the progress that has been made but also in determining general guidelines for further movement.”
Russia has spent years trying to help Syria’s Bashar Assad by repairing ties with Türkiye and other countries fractured in the war, killing nearly 500,000 people and displacing half of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million. Russia intervened militarily in Syria starting in September 2015, teaming up with Iran to help Assad’s government to reclaim most of the country. Moscow has maintained a military presence in the Mideast country even as most of its forces are fighting in Ukraine.
Throughout the 12-year conflict, Türkiye has backed the opposition while the Assad regime has frequently denounced Ankara’s support that paved the way for liberating Syria’s north from terrorist groups.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Syrian regime media quoted Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad as saying that Syria and Türkiye “shared goals and common interests.” He said that “despite all the negatives over the past years,” Damascus saw the talks as an opportunity “for both governments to cooperate with the help and support of our friends Russia and Iran.” Yet, Mekdad added that the Syrian government’s “main goal” was to end all “illegal” military presences in the country, including that of Turkish forces. “We will continue to demand and insist on withdrawal,” he said.
Following a deadly earthquake in February that killed thousands of people in Syria and Türkiye, regional normalization with Damascus began to accelerate. In April, Moscow hosted deputy foreign ministers of Türkiye, Syria and Iran for talks that focused on “practical steps to strengthen security in the Syrian Arab Republic and to normalize Syrian-Turkish relations.”
Russia’s long-standing effort to open a channel of dialogue between Türkiye and the Bashar Assad regime paid off last year, as the defense ministers and intelligence chiefs of Türkiye, Russia and the Bashar Assad regime met in Moscow on Dec. 28.
Erdoğan’s opponents also support reconciliation with Syria and play an important part in Türkiye’s election campaign. Erdoğan has pledged to speed up the repatriation of nearly 4 million Syrian refugees and migrants who fled to Türkiye to escape poverty and war. An agreement with Damascus is seen as a prerequisite for this process. Ankara said earlier that the repatriation would be discussed at the meeting.
Minister Çavuşoğlu exchanged a few words with his Syrian counterpart on the sidelines of a regional summit in 2021. But both sides insisted that this did not mark a resumption of formal talks.
According to earlier statements from the Assad regime, Damascus wants the end of Turkish presence on Syrian territories.
Since 2016, Ankara has launched a trio of successful counterterrorism operations across its border in northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable the peaceful settlement of residents: Euphrates Shield in 2016, Olive Branch in 2018 and Peace Spring in 2019. The PKK terrorist group’s Syrian wing, the YPG, has controlled much of northeastern Syria after Assad’s forces withdrew in 2012. Turkish officials have voiced that Ankara and Damascus could cooperate in the upcoming period on the return of Syrian refugees in Türkiye and counterterrorism efforts as the PKK/YPG still controls much of the war-torn country’s east, making it impossible for Assad to establish territorial integrity.
Conversely, normalization has also been ongoing with the regime and the Arab world. Bashar Assad was invited to next week’s Arab summit in Saudi Arabia, the government said Wednesday, the first such invitation since the country’s war began in 2011. Assad received an invitation from Saudi King Salman “to participate in the thirty-second Arab League summit, which will be held in Jeddah on May 19”, a statement said. Assad said the summit “will enhance joint Arab action to achieve the aspirations of the Arab peoples,” added.
Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Jordan, Nayef bin Bandar Al Sudairi, delivered the invitation. On Sunday, the Arab League welcomed back the Syrian regime, securing Assad’s return to the Arab fold after years of isolation.
The pan-Arab body suspended Damascus in November 2011 over its crackdown on protests that spiraled into war. The last Arab League summit Assad attended was in 2010 in Libya. The invitation comes a day after Riyadh and Damascus announced that work would resume at their respective diplomatic missions in Syria and Saudi Arabia after more than a decade of severed ties. Assad had been politically isolated in the region since the war began. Still, a flurry of diplomatic activity has been underway in recent weeks after a decision by arch-rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, a close ally of Damascus, to resume ties shifted the political landscape.
