All news

Erdogan praises Russia’s role in mediation toward Turkey-Syria normalization – Kremlin

Presidents of Turkey and Russia had a telephone conversation

MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan highlighted Russia’s constructive role as a mediator in the efforts to bring relations between his country and Syria back to normal, the Kremlin said on Saturday.

Commenting on Erdogan’s telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier on Saturday, the Kremlin said that the two leaders "discussed Syrian issues. They emphasized the need to continue the process of normalizing relations between Turkey and Syria. To this effect, the Turkish president highlighted Russia’s constructive role as a mediator."

The process of normalizing relations between Ankara and Damascus kicked off on December 28, 2022 following consultations between the Russian, Syrian and Turkish defense ministers in Moscow. The three countries’ defense chiefs agreed to set up a joint trilateral commission. These consultations are supposed to be followed by a meeting of the foreign ministers, whose agenda will include organizing talks between Turkey’s Erdogan and President Bashar Assad of Syria. Later, it was reported that Iran would join the consultations at the foreign ministerial level.

Erdogan told journalists in mid-December 2022 that he had offered his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to organize a trilateral meeting with the Syrian leader. This summit, in his words, should be preceded by talks between the security service heads and the defense and foreign ministers.