ISTANBUL, July 14. /TASS/. Turkey hopes that its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s call for the normalization of relations with Syria will be heeded in Damascus and counts on Russia and Iran’s constructive role in this process, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said.
"The spirit of the time pushes us toward peace [with Syria]. We hope that President Erdogan’s calls for peace will the duly appreciated [by Syria’s authorities]. We count on Russia and Iran’s constructive role in our talks," he told journalists after a conversation with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.
The top Turkish diplomat recalled that his country has been in dialogue with Syria since 2017. "In my previous job (chief of the National Intelligence Organization - TASS), I took part in the talks on Syria. There were mediated by Russia and Iran within the Astana process. There were held at all levels. There was not activity in the talks throughout last year. The region has come to a climate prone to peace. In this environment, our president has come out with the call [for normalization]," Fidan said.
At the same time, he stressed that Ankara will not change its point of view about the Syrian opposition. "We cannot forget the cost they paid in the fight on terrorism and we will not abandon them," he said, adding that the Turkish authorities will not expel Syrian refugees. There are more than three million Syrian refugees in Turkey.
When receiving Russian presidential envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev on June 26, Syrian President Bashar Assad said that Damascus "is open to all initiatives geared toward improving relations with Turkey, if this process is based on the respect to sovereignty and Syria’s striving to restore it over the entire territory of the country." On June 28, Erdogan said that Ankara was ready to resume diplomatic relations with Damascus, which were severed in 2012. On June 12, he said that he had asked the foreign minister to "meet with his colleagues and draft a roadmap for the normalization.".