Erdoğan responds positively to Assad's call for better ties

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has expressed openness to restoring diplomatic relations with Syria, following a call from his counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, for improved ties between the nations.

“There is no reason why diplomatic relations should not be established. We can continue in the same way as we did together in the past,” Erdoğan told journalists after Friday prayers on June 28.

The president recalled previous discussions with Assad that included even families, adding, "It is not impossible. It would happen again tomorrow."

The foreign ministers of the two countries met in late 2022 for the highest-level talks between the neighbors, who have been at odds since 2011 when the Arab Spring uprisings reached Syria and plunged the country into war.

The conflict has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, involved numerous foreign powers and fragmented the country.

Assad has recently shown willingness to mend ties with Türkiye amid broader regional reconciliation efforts.

A post shared on the Syrian presidency's website on June 25 said he "affirms Syria's openness to all initiatives" to improve Ankara-Damascus relations "based on Syria's sovereignty, territorial integrity in its entirety, the fight against terrorism and terrorist organizations."

He conveyed the message to Russia's Syria envoy, Alexander Lavrentyev, during a meeting in Damascus, according to the Syrian state-news agency.

Erdoğan last year did not rule out talks with Assad but reiterated his stance on Türkiye's military operations in northern Syria.

"We have no goal of interfering in Syria's internal affairs. The Syrian people are a brotherly community," he said on June 28.

The Russian-mediated direct talks between Turkish and Syrian officials that began in 2022 ended without success, as Damascus insisted on the withdrawal of Turkish forces from Syrian territory.

Türkiye has control over a large territory in northern Syria as a result of operations between 2016 and 2020.