Syrian Defense Minister Ali Mahmoud Abbas and his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar have met with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at a trilateral meeting in Moscow to discuss the Syrian crisis indicating a possible rapprochement between Ankara and Damascus.
The sides held talks Wednesday to address the situation in Syria, as well as the refugee crisis stemming from the conflict that erupted in 2011 and terrorism in the region, one of the many causes of tension between Syria and Turkey.
Turkey launched last November 21 the operation ‘Sword Claw’, a bombing campaign against Kurdish groups in northern Iraq and Syria after an attack in Istanbul, although both the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) disassociated themselves from the attack.
«After the meeting, the parties noted the constructive nature of the dialogue held in this format and the need to continue it in the interests of further stabilizing the situation in Syria and the region as a whole,» the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement carried by the Interfax news agency.
The high-level meeting, which has not taken place between the parties since 2011, was also attended by the head of the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT), Hakan Fidan, Anatolia news agency reported.
This meeting took place after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in mid-December to hold a trilateral meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and thus open a process of negotiations.
Last November, Erdogan indicated that relations between Turkey and Syria could improve in the same way that Ankara’s relations with Cairo had improved. Erdogan has maintained a close relationship with al Assad in the past, although the situation changed after the outbreak of war in 2011, when the Turkish leader stepped forward in support of al Assad’s rivals.
The war in Syria erupted over the security forces’ crackdown on a series of pro-democracy demonstrations as part of the ‘Arab Spring’ and which led to calls for the resignation of President Bashar al Assad and subsequently the creation of dozens of rebel groups to fight the army.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
