Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavoğlu will go to the United States tomorrow ahead of a meeting between foreign ministers of Turkey and Syria, scheduled at the end of January or the beginning of February within the scope of the Ankara-Damascus normalization process. Regarding Damascus’s accusation of Turkey’s being an “occupier,” AK Party Spokesperson Ömer Çelik stated, “Some radical phrases are uttered, and presumptuous sentences are also uttered, but the line of diplomacy must be kept intact, and the channels of collaboration must be kept intact.”

Efforts continue on the diplomatic front to lead up to a meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Syrian President Bashar Assad. Çavuşoğlu will meet with the foreign ministers of the other two actors in Syria, the United States, and Iran, as part of the normalization process. With Ankara’s request, the Turkish-Syrian dialogue began through Moscow’s mediation and advanced with the meeting of the two countries’ defense ministers. Although the United States declared it is against Turkey’s efforts to thaw ties with Syria, Iran has voiced its support for the normalization between Ankara and Damascus.

Received by Assad in Damascus last Friday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian will meet with Çavuşoğlu in Ankara. In his meeting with Assad, the Iranian minister said, “any dialogue between Syria and Turkey, if serious, is a positive step for the benefit of both countries and the region.” During the meeting, the Syrian president remarked, “the basis of all the attitudes of the Syrian state is always to protect the interests of the Syrian people, and Syria would not go forward in dialogue with Turkey unless it aims at ending the occupation and halting support for terrorist organizations.” Assad also briefed Putin’s Special Representative for Syria, Aleksandr Lavrentyev, during his time in Damascus, stating that “in order for the meetings with the Turkish side to be fruitful,” it must be based on the end of “the occupation,” i.e., Turkey’s military presence in northern Syria.

“Terrorist groups, not Turkey, pose the threat”

The attitude of Damascus and the expected meeting of the two countries’ foreign ministers were asked last night to the AK Party Deputy Chairman and Spokesperson Ömer Çelik. “Some work on steps with Syria is almost completed,” said Çelik, adding, “When these are finalized, the foreign ministers will meet. I want to say to our interlocutors in Syria, ‘The main threat to them is terrorist organizations. The Republic of Turkey is not a threat to them.’ We defend Syria’s territorial integrity in the strongest possible way. What we desire in Syria is no conflict, no bloodshed, no small terror statelets established by the terrorist organizations, and that the Syrian people see their own future through a political solution within the scope of the constitutional process. It is not Turkey that threatens Syria’s territorial integrity; it is terrorist organizations. Turkey carried out this intervention when those terrorist organizations settled in Syria and began to threaten the national security of the Republic of Turkey. All our interventions are legal. What needs to be done today is: Advance these political negotiations, as well as implement joint mechanisms with Syria to clear Syrian territory of terrorist groups. We have the required experience in this whole process. Some radical phrases are uttered, and presumptuous sentences are also uttered, but the line of diplomacy must be kept intact, and the channels of collaboration must be kept intact. Our will is in that direction. Turkey is not an occupier there.”

“Damascus does not have the means to crush the YPG”

Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın told a group of international media representatives, in response to a question regarding Damascus’s attitude, that the operation in Syria is possible at any time. Mazloum Kobani, the leader of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a branch of the PKK/YPG, also stated that they take Turkey’s “threats” seriously. “We expect an attack in February,” he told Amberin Zaman of Al-Monitor and added, “The town of Kobani is a likely target because of its symbolic meaning for Kurds world over. Turkey is heading for elections, and we are aware that President Erdogan wants to rally nationalist support and he appears to believe that attacking Rojava again can serve this purpose.”

“The United States showed itself to be against any military operation by Turkey, but America’s efforts are falling short,” he stated, “they need to do more.” Pointing out that Russia is trying to solve existing problems in Syria by bringing Turkey and the Syrian regime around the same table, Kobani does not believe such attempts can succeed because the Syrian regime will, according to him, never compromise on its own demands, which are Turkey’s withdrawal of all its troops from Syrian soil and that of its support for the armed Sunni opposition groups. Kobani, on the other hand, is confident that the Syrian regime would yield to Turkey’s demands to “crush” the PKK/YPG, for Damascus neither has the means to do this nor are circumstances favorable to any such plans.