Cavusoglu: U.S. Hinders Turkey’s Normalization With Syria

Date: 04 January 2023 - 21:49

News ID: ۱۱۰۹۳۲

ANKARA (Dispatches) –
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the United States opposes Ankara’s plans to normalize relations with Syria, noting that Washington has not officially informed Turkey of this.
“The United States did not explicitly tell us why are you meeting with the Syrian side in tripartite meetings with Russia, but we understand and know that the United States is against normalizing our relations with the Syrian side,” Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara.
The Turkish minister commented on the possibility of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying: “Let us, the ministers, meet and assess the situation, then evaluate holding this meeting.”
“Our various institutions have held meetings with the Syrian opposition, and I will personally meet with representatives of the opposition,” he added.
Last Wednesday the defence ministers of Turkey, Syria and Russia met in Moscow for the first time since the outbreak of the foreign-backed war in Syria in 2011.
The first high-level meeting was cordial but no deals have been made, multiple sources told Middle East Eye.
The Turkish and Syrian defence ministers, along with their Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu, met on Thursday, elevating contacts that had previously been held on a strictly intelligence level.
Turkey’s defence ministry said the parties discussed the the war in Syria, the refugee problem and the fight against “all terror groups” operating on Syrian soil.
Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said he told his Syrian counterpart Ali Mahmoud Abbas and Shoigu that Turkey respects the territorial integrity of all its neighbors and “only aims to fight the terror groups to protect its borders”.
“We strive to put a stop to refugee arrivals,” he said. “We told them that the crisis in Syria must be resolved within the framework of UN Security Council Resolution 2254,” he added, referring to a 2015 roadmap for peace in Syria.
The source said the Syrian government also wanted to declare the Turkish-controlled areas as “terror zones”, which was also rejected by the Turkish delegation.
The source added that the Syrians didn’t appear willing to work against Syrian Kurdish affiliates of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group that has been waging a decades-long war against the Turkish state.
Turkey has been calling on Damascus to create a 30km-deep zone along the Turkish border that would be free of groups that Ankara accuses of being part of the PKK or affiliated with it, such as the so-called People’s Protection Units militia (YPG) and its political arm, the PYD. Ankara also wants Syria to help manage the return of at least one million Syrian refugees.