Syrian sources have refuted claims that Turkey’s main opposition party will be invited to mediate in negotiations between the Turkish and Syrian states.
The Turkish opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has claimed that it secured an agreement with the Syrian regime to begin negotiations. CHP leader Özgür Özel said on 4 July “We have an agreement, and we will set a date. We expect to visit Damascus very soon. Unless unforeseen circumstances arise, we will go and discuss. I will make tremendous efforts to resolve this issue and secure funding from Europe. We hope the meeting will take place within July, travelling via Lebanon.”
However, Syrian newspaper Al-Watan has reported that these claims are false. The newspaper, which is aligned with the Assad regime, reports that a “credible source in Damascus” has denied that Özel will be offered an invitation to visit the Syrian capital. The same source said that “conditions are not yet favourable” for negotiations to take place.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently signalled a willingness to begin negotiations with Damascus, in a significant policy change. Erdoğan announced at the NATO summit that, “I made my call to Mr Assad two weeks ago, ‘Either come to my country or let’s have a meeting in a third country’. I also assigned my Minister of Foreign Affairs to the matter. We want to end this resentment”.
Previous reports have suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin has renewed efforts to initiate a deal between his ally al-Assad and the Turkish state. Iraq has also played a role in brokering the negotiations. Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein reportedly met with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan in Washington this week, to pave the way for negotiations.
However, in what seems like a significant setback, a report in the Saudi government-aligned Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat states that Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus is demanding that, as a precondition of negotiations, Turkey agrees to end its military occupation of northern Syria, and sever its ties to proxy militias in the region.
Members of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army, which is currently occupying parts of northern Syria alongside Turkish forces, protested this week at the prospect of a change in Turkish state policy.
But Al-Watan reported that “Ankara does not seem prepared to meet” the Syrian state’s demands.
The future of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) will feature in any future Turkish negotiations with the Syrian regime. AANES representatives have expressed dismay and distrust this week at the prospect of Ankara/Damascus negotiations. According to Dr Samira al-Moubayed, “The Turkish government’s efforts to meet with Bashar al-Assad’s regime or invite it to Ankara with the Russian president are aimed at stifling the Syrian revolution and preventing political change in Syria.” Commentators are concerned that both the Syrian and Turkish states see the existence of the AANES as a threat to their foreign policy.
