Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria: the head of Egyptian diplomacy visits Damascus


Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad (right) and his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukri (left) at the Syrian Foreign Ministry in Damascus on February 27, 2023. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP

The head of Egyptian diplomacy, Sameh Choukri, arrived in Damascus on Monday, February 27, confirming the warming of relations between Syria and several Arab countries since the earthquake which struck this country and neighboring Turkey.

Sameh Choukri’s visit expresses “solidarity with Syria in the face of the consequences of the earthquake“Said the official Syrian agency Sana, adding that he had been welcomed at Damascus international airport by his counterpart, Faisal al-Mokdad.

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“Solidarity message from Egypt”

The visit to Syria by Sameh Choukri, who is also due to go to Turkey, “is a message of solidarity from Egypt with these two brotherly countries after the earthquakeof February 6 which killed nearly 46,000 people in the two countries, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Cairo had been on diplomatic stalemate with the two countries for a decade.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi called on his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, for an unprecedented conversation between the two heads of state. The heads of Egyptian and Syrian diplomacy had also spoken by telephone and Cairo sent three planes and two boats loaded with humanitarian aid to Syria. Bashar al-Assad has been diplomatically isolated, especially from the Arab scene (Syria is still suspended from the Arab League, which sits in Cairo) since the beginning of the repression of a popular uprising born in 2011 and which degenerated into civil war .

An exit from diplomatic isolation

But since the earthquake that devastated Syria and Turkey, Arab countries have resumed contact and sent aid to Damascus, which is beginning to emerge from its diplomatic isolation. On Sunday February 26, a delegation of heads of Arab parliaments was welcomed by Bashar al-Assad. Among them was the Speaker of the Egyptian Parliament, Hanafy El-Gabaly, described by the Egyptian state press as “highest Egyptian leader received in Damascusfor more than a decade.

However, relations were never completely severed between Cairo and Damascus and the highest official of the Syrian security services, General Ali Mamlouk, had even made his first public visit abroad in 2016 since the beginning of the war in Syria in 2011.

Turkish reaction

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu on Monday welcomed the visit “importantby his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Choukri, three weeks after the February 6 earthquake and at a time when Ankara and Cairo are seeking to normalize their relations. “We are opening new pages in our relations with EgyptMevlüt Cavusoglu said during a press conference with Mr. Choukri in the port of Mersin, in southern Turkey, where a humanitarian aid ship provided by Egypt has docked.

It is extremely important and significant that Mr. Choukri is in Turkeyadded the Turkish minister.


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