Turkey claims a leading role on the road to peace in Syria. But the process is stalling. With its call for reconciliation between the two sides, Ankara is now causing protests among the opposition in the neighboring country.
Syrian government opponents have reacted angrily to a call by the Turkish foreign minister for reconciliation with the government in Damascus. There were calls for protests after Friday prayers in numerous cities in northern and northwestern Syria, including cities controlled by Turkish soldiers and their allies, such as Afrin, Jarablus and Al-Bab. In the Idlib region in the northwest, which is predominantly controlled by Islamist and jihadist militias, there were calls for protests on the border with Turkey. The first protests had already taken place during the night.
“We must somehow reconcile the opposition and the regime in Syria,” Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu had said in Ankara the previous day. Otherwise, there would be “no lasting peace”.
The statement seems to indicate a shift in Turkey’s position. Since the outbreak of the civil war in neighboring Syria in 2011, Turkey has expressed its bitter opposition to the government of ruler Bashar al-Assad and has also provided military support to Syrian government opponents, including many Islamist militias. As recently as May, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had called the Assad regime “murderous.”
Around half a million dead
If Cavusoglu’s concern is reconciliation with the Syrian government, that is his business, Syrian opposition politician George Sabra wrote on Facebook in response to Cavusoglu’s statement. Syrians were fighting for a different cause “for which they have paid and will continue to pay the ultimate price,” Sabra further wrote. The Syrian civil war has killed some 500,000 people, destroyed large parts of the country’s infrastructure and displaced millions since 2011.
Turkey has played “a leading role in maintaining the ceasefire on the ground” and in talks on drafting a new constitution, although there has been no progress on the latter, a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman said. At present, he said, this is not progressing because Damascus is dragging its feet on the process.
Secret services cooperate again
Cavusoglu had also said that he had a brief meeting with his Syrian counterpart Faisal al-Meqdad in Belgrade in October and that communications had resumed between the two countries’ intelligence services. However, the minister rejected direct talks between Erdogan and Assad, although Russia has long called for such a dialogue. Damascus is receiving military support from Moscow in the Syrian conflict.
Cavusoglu also added that Turkey would continue its fight against “terrorism” in Syria. Ankara has already been threatening since May that it might attack Kurdish-held areas in northern and northeastern Syria. Turkey had launched several military offensives in northern Syria in recent years.
The source used in the creation of a news story: https://www.n-tv.de
