Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said a quadrilateral meeting of officials from Syria, Türkiye, Russia and Iran was scheduled to be held on Monday and Tuesday in Moscow. The meeting at the deputy foreign minister level was initially set for March but was postponed at the request of Russia.

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 Assad regime met in Moscow on Dec. 28. The Turkish and Syrian Foreign Ministers had a brief informal exchange on the sidelines of a regional summit in 2021, and Ankara acknowledged the intelligence contacts. In November, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said a meeting with Assad was possible after cutting diplomatic ties with Damascus throughout the 11-year conflict. In December 2022, he hinted he could meet with Assad after meeting both countries’ defense and foreign ministers. "We want to take a step as Syria, Türkiye and Russia," he had said.

Any normalization between Ankara and Damascus would reshape the decadelong Syrian war. Turkish backing has been vital to sustaining moderate Syrian opposition in their last significant territorial foothold in the northwest after Bashar Assad defeated the opponent across the rest of the country, aided by Russia and Iran.

The meetings come after the recent launch of Türkiye’s Operation Claw-Sword, a cross-border aerial campaign against the PKK terrorist group and its Syrian wing, the YPG, which have illegal hideouts across the Iraqi and Syrian borders where they plan attacks on Turkish soil. After launching the air operation, Erdoğan also signaled a ground operation to northern Iraq and northern Syria to eliminate the terrorist threat, adding that "this is not limited to just an air operation."

Lavrov visit

Çavuşoğlu, who was speaking to a group of Turkish journalists at the Turkish House (Türkevi) in New York City, U.S., during a visit, also noted that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would pay a visit to Türkiye on April 6-7 in the wake of the Feb. 6 twin earthquakes. Çavuşoğlu said they would have the opportunity to discuss different dimensions of bilateral relations during Lavrov’s visit. During the meeting, the top diplomats will also discuss Syria, Libya, and other regional issues, as well as the extension of the grain agreement. The topics discussed during the meeting are the political process in Syria, the situation of Syrian refugees, and the need to increase humanitarian aid to Syria after the earthquakes.

Earthquake diplomacy

Normalization of ties with countries Ankara has been at odds with over a spate of issues that gained momentum after the Feb. 6 earthquakes. As countries offered condolences and provided humanitarian assistance in the face of this biggest disaster, Türkiye faced in its recent history, diplomacy was also at work. Egypt, for instance, rekindled the hope of an Ankara-Cairo rapprochement. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry’s visit to the disaster zone where he met Çavuşoğlu accelerated the slow pace of normalization. The rare visit was responded to in kind by Çavuşoğlu, who left for Cairo a few weeks later. Çavuşoğlu told reporters that Türkiye and Egypt had no issues in economic and commercial ties already, and they were now working to normalize their political relations fully. He said they were working on determining a date for a presidential-level meeting.

Similarly, Türkiye’s neighbor Greece was among the first responders to the earthquake by sending relief and search and rescue crews. Çavuşoğlu has hosted his Greek counterpart in the disaster zone amid an air of reconciliation between two countries whose past is stained with hostilities. The Turkish minister told reporters that there was a positive atmosphere in relations, but the two sides needed to avoid escalating tensions to sustain this. "We have historical issues we could not agree upon, we could not resolve, and some of them are complicated. We need a sincere working environment to resolve them. We had and are having consultative talks, but they should be more result-oriented now. We already know what the issues are," he said.

U.S. support to terrorists

Çavuşoğlu was also critical of the U.S. when asked about the helicopter crash carrying terrorists from the PKK in northern Iraq. The incident last month sparked questions about how a terrorist group can get a hold of a helicopter. When reports emerged that the helicopter was traveling between an area of Syria controlled by the PKK’s branches in Syria and Iraq, the U.S. found itself in hot water, as Washington has openly provided military equipment and training to PKK/YPG.

"It is crucial whether the U.S. knew anything about helicopters taking off from Syria’s northeast. The U.S. controls the airspace there and would definitely know even if a bird flew there without permission. You cannot take off in a helicopter without notifying the authorities controlling the airspace," Çavuşoğlu said.

The minister stated that the U.S. was already providing military support to PKK/YPG, and they did not "hide this fact."

"They have a guise after all: fighting against Daesh. Their excuse is that the PKK/YPG keeps Daesh members in detention and so they were essential. We told them that people in detention could be repatriated to their countries and this cannot be an excuse for supporting a terrorist group," he said.

Çavuşoğlu mentioned that the U.S. chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff visited Syria’s northeast last month and Washington assured them that he did not meet PKK/YPG members during the visit.

"It convinced us since the PKK/YPG would not miss the opportunity to have their meeting publicized as they want to legitimize their presence," he said. "Regardless, what truly matters is what the U.S. troops are doing there and why the chairman is visiting there. They are there to support the PKK/YPG, regardless of the question of whether the chairperson met (the terrorist group’s members)," he added.