The word of the Turkish president is intended to be reassuring and steeped in common sense, almost obvious: ” I talked [au président russe, Vladimir] Putin, this morning we started a three-way process, Turkey-Russia-Syria. Then we will bring our foreign ministers together. Then we will meet as leaders, depending on developments. Our concern is to ensure peace in the region. » The subject is fraught with litigation and the stakes go far beyond the simple improvement of relations between Ankara and Damascus, the two sworn enemies on the Syrian ground. But Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems sure of himself, the dynamic is set in motion, and no matter how long it will take.
Delivered on January 5 before members of the Justice and Development Party, his party, the words of the Head of State echo the unexpected meeting, which took place a week earlier in Moscow, between Syrian ministers and Turkish defence, the first public meeting at this level between Ankara and Damascus since the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in 2011.
They are part of this new score written in the heart of the summer of 2022, when Mr. Erdogan and his government suddenly multiplied the signals of openness in favor of diplomatic normalization, under the aegis of Russia. They also recall the need to cross “new steps” with Syria, as the Turkish President repeated, and evoke, implicitly, this dream expressed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mevlüt Çavusoglu, of seeing the opposition and the regime “reconcile”. However, they mask a less shimmering reality, as the ground and the backstage of the negotiations are made of bumps, pitfalls and slammed doors.
“End of Occupation”
The meeting of Syrian and Turkish foreign ministers, initially announced by various diplomatic sources for mid-January, has been postponed for a month, said Saturday, January 14, Ibrahim Kalin, diplomatic adviser and spokesperson for the Turkish president , in front of several foreign media, including The world. This ministerial meeting conceived as the prelude to a summit meeting between MM. Erdogan and Assad is crucial in terms of recognition and political symbolism, beyond the diplomatic aspects.
Pending this, a second meeting was deemed necessary, we learned, between the defense ministers of the two countries. The obvious sign of an additional need for explanations and stalls between the two parties on the military front. Ankara’s armed forces have been deployed since 2016 on Syrian soil and control three districts in the north of the country. Their presence represents the largest Turkish deployment in an Arab state since the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1918.
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