ANKARA, April 7. /TASS/. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan would like to meet with his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad ahead of the Turkish elections, Aydэn Sezer, a Turkish political analyst and economist, told TASS on Friday.
"The sides are working hard to set a date for a meeting of foreign ministers from Russia, Syria, Iran and Turkey. As for Turkey, it wants to arrange for a summit during the preparations for the elections between Erdogan and Assad. If it doesn’t happen, it wants to hold a meeting between the foreign ministers. I think Cavusoglu could have specially asked Lavrov about this," the analyst said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held talks in Ankara on April 6 and 7. The sides reaffirmed their plans to stay in contact for preparing the meeting of foreign ministers from Russia, Syria, Iran and Turkey.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier that deputy foreign ministers from Russia, Syria, Iran and Turkey held consultations in Moscow on April 3 and 4 about preparations for a four-way meeting among the ministers.
The process of normalization of relations between Ankara and Damascus was started in Moscow on December 28, 2022, when consultations were held among the defense ministers of Russia, Syria and Turkey. An agreement was reached at the meeting on the establishment of a joint tripartite commission. Following these consultations, a meeting should be held at the level of foreign ministers, the agenda of which will include the issue of holding talks between the presidents of Turkey and Syria Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Bashar Assad. It was later reported that Iran would also take part in consultations of foreign ministers.
Erdogan told reporters on December 15 last year that he had invited his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to hold a trilateral meeting with the Syrian leader. This summit, he said, should be preceded by negotiations of representatives of special services, defense and foreign ministers.