Türkiye ready to work with Syria if regime acts realistically: FM

ANKARA

The talks between Ankara and Damascus continue through intelligence agencies and Türkiye is ready to work with the regime on the return of Syrians to their country, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Dec. 12.

“If the regime acts realistically, we are ready to work together in the fight against terrorism, the political process and the return of Syrians. It is unthinkable otherwise,” Çavuşoğlu said addressing the budget talks at the parliament.

Ankara follows the same policy in Iraq, he said and added, “We offer both Baghdad and Erbil to make cooperation in the fight against terrorism. We convey the same messages to the new Iraqi government. If our interlocutors listen to our calls, we will march together and fight against terrorism together.”

If Ankara’s calls on the issue of the fight against terrorism remain unanswered, then Türkiye will paddle its own canoe, he added.

Çavuşoğlu said that Türkiye did not follow a static and unchanging policy, the government did whatever the interests of the nation required under the current conditions. “We head to the field if the negotiation doors were closed,” the minister said referring to Türkiye’s cross border operations. But if the conditions were suitable for negotiation, they negotiated and, the recent normalization policies were a result of this reality, he added.

Underlining that Ankara always wanted problems to be resolved through dialogue, Çavuşoğlu emphasized that this is not something that depends only on Türkiye, and that its interlocutors should be ready and that regional and global conditions should be suitable for this.

Stating that the issue of the Aegean islands is “national policy,” Çavuşoğlu called on the opposition and said, “Let’s not try to corner each other in a way that will benefit Greece. Let’s not give a trump card to Greece. So, let’s evaluate national policies together.”

Last week, Greece complained to the U.N. about the Hydrocarbon Agreement that Türkiye signed with Libya in October, the minister said.

“We, together with Libya, conveyed our joint response to this letter to the U.N. right after. But the difference is that Greece made demagoguery in its letter, while our letter contains legal arguments. This achievement will determine the balances in the Eastern Mediterranean for generations,” he stated.