This is a milestone in the Turkish-Syrian rapprochement that Russia has been promoting covertly for several years, and that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been publicly calling for since last summer. The Turkish and Syrian Defense Ministers, Hulusi Akar and Ali Mahmoud Abbas, spoke on Wednesday December 28 during a meeting in Moscow with their Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu.
With our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer
It was the first official meeting at this level between Ankara and Damascus since the start of the war in Syria in 2011. According to official Turkish sources, the discussions in Moscow focused on “ the crisis in Syria, the refugee issue and efforts in the joint fight against all terrorist groups “. Ankara welcomed a dialogue “ constructive and announced the continuation of these trilateral exchanges.
Long fiercely opposed to the idea of restoring diplomatic relations with neighboring Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently changed his tone. Last month, he even judged “ possible » a meeting with Bashar al-Assad, whom he nevertheless described as « murderer for more than ten years.
Erdogan’s ambitions on the border with Syria
If Recep Tayyip Erdogan resolves to such a reversal, it is not only under Russian pressure, but also because he considers that the implementation of his objectives in Syria must now go through it. The Turkish president aims to create on the Turkish-Syrian border a “ buffer to send back some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees on its territory, whose presence is increasingly unpopular within Turkish society.
He also continues to promise the launch of a new ground offensive against the Kurdish forces in northern Syria, with the approval if not of Damascus, at least of Moscow. Ankara would like to bring the Syrian regime to consider Kurdish fighters as a common enemy.
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