There are no specific agreements on the date and place of the meeting between the leaders of Turkey and Syria, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Bashar al-Assad, there are many rumors in the media on this topic, the office of the Turkish leader told RIA Novosti.
“We see several stories in the media, but so far there are no agreements on this issue. We will announce this (the meeting of the leaders of Turkey and the Syrian Arab Republic) in a timely manner if any information is available.” – they said in the office.
Earlier, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Ankara welcomes Russia’s efforts to establish interaction between Turkey and Syria and will continue its own efforts to prepare the ground for the normalization of relations with Damascus in a spirit of goodwill and without preconditions.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov On August 31, the Turkish Foreign Minister stated that a meeting in the Russia-Iran-Turkey-Syria format will be held in the foreseeable future to normalize relations between Ankara and Damascus. He recalled that the parties managed to hold a meeting in 2023 with the participation of defense departments, foreign ministries and intelligence services, trying to negotiate the conditions that could lead to the normalization of relations between Syria and Turkey.
Recently, information has appeared about a possible meeting between Assad and Erdogan. Thus, the newspaper Hürriyet, citing sources, reported that such a meeting was expected in August in Baghdad. Other media outlets noted that negotiations could take place in Moscow. In early August, the deputy head of the Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Bogdanov He noted that the Russian side is ready to host the meeting.
The foreign ministers of the four countries met in Moscow on May 10, 2023. Based on its results, the ministers ordered the preparation of a draft roadmap for normalizing relations between Turkey and Syria. However, later Assad, speaking before the new convening of the People’s Council (parliament), said that there was no progress on this initiative, despite the sincere efforts of mediators represented by Russia, Iran and Iraq.
