Turkey says there is no such thing as a change in its Syria coverage after opposition teams urge Ankara to reaffirm assist for them.
Syria’s political and armed opposition have urged their decade-long backer Turkey to reaffirm its assist for his or her trigger after the highest-level talks between Ankara and the Damascus governments for the reason that Syrian battle started in 2011.
Turkey has offered assist and a base for political opponents of President Bashar al-Assad’s authorities whereas coaching and combating alongside rebels towards his troops. Ankara has additionally sheltered thousands and thousands of Syrian refugees who fled al-Assad’s forces.
The Turkish and Syrian defence ministers met in Moscow on December 28 with the subjects of migration and Kurdish fighters primarily based on Syria’s border with Turkey on the agenda, in keeping with a Turkish official.
That has brought on unease inside the Syrian opposition.
The top of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which has fought towards al-Assad’s forces, mentioned in a video handle launched on Monday that talks between Syria, Russia and Turkey had been a “harmful deviation”.
Ahrar al-Sham, one other armed group, mentioned that whereas it “understood the state of affairs of our Turkish ally”, it “can not even consider reconciling” with the Syrian authorities.
Ankara sought to reassure the opposition with Defence Minister Hulusi Akar saying Turkey wouldn't take any steps that might trigger issues for them.
“They need to not take any completely different attitudes by counting on any provocation or false information,” Akar mentioned on Wednesday.
The Syrian Nationwide Coalition, an opposition umbrella organisation, met Turkish International Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Tuesday. He assured it of Turkey’s continued assist “to Syrian opposition establishments and Syrians within the opposition-held areas”, mentioned Abdurrahman Mustafa, the top of the Turkey-backed opposition’s provisional authorities.
‘Turkey determines its personal coverage’
Turkey’s talks with Syrian officers in Moscow primarily centered on the struggle in northeastern Syria towards the Individuals’s Defence Items (YPG), a Kurdish militia in Syria, Mustafa reported Cavusoglu as saying.
A senior Turkish official advised the Reuters information company it had seen the reactions of insurgent factions to the assembly however “Turkey determines its personal coverage.”
“It's unrealistic to count on a direct end result from the primary assembly of ministers,” the official mentioned.
He additionally mentioned Ankara requested Damascus in final week’s talks in Moscow to recognise the YPG as a “terrorist” organisation.
Turkey sees the YPG because the Syrian wing of the Kurdistan Employees’ Get together (PKK), which is taken into account a “terrorist” organisation by Turkey, america and the European Union.
Turkish-Syrian rapprochement appeared unthinkable earlier within the battle, which has killed a whole lot of hundreds of individuals, drawn in quite a few international powers and splintered Syria into numerous zones of affect.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has known as al-Assad a “terrorist” and mentioned there may very well be no peace in Syria with him in workplace whereas al-Assad has known as Erdogan a thief for “stealing” Syrian land.
However conferences between the 2 international locations’ safety chiefs final yr paved the way in which for the defence ministers to satisfy.
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