The new Syrian leader and recently appointed interim president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, travelled to Ankara on Tuesday where he met with Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan on his first official visit to Turkey after the fall of the Assad regime, described as ‘historic’ by the media, with the fight against terrorism and the reconstruction of Syria at the top of the agenda.
Turkish media reported that upon his arrival in the Turkish capital, where he was received with the honours befitting a head of state at the presidential palace, Sharaa and Erdoğan held a closed-door meeting in which they discussed the situation in Syria and the risk posed to the unity of the country by the presence of the Syrian affiliate of the PKK terrorist group, the YPG, which controls large territories east of the Euphrates River. The Turkish president has pledged to help the new Syrian government rebuild state structures and draft a new constitution for the country, which is devastated after 13 years of civil war.
Al-Sharaa arrived in Ankara after visiting Saudi Arabia, where he travelled in search of financial aid precisely to support the country’s reconstruction and revive its ravaged economy. Speaking to reporters in Ankara after the meeting at the presidential palace, Erdoğan stressed that this visit ‘is the beginning of an era of permanent friendship with Turkey’ and that ‘the Syrian people now has the will they need to build their future’.
‘Turkey has always supported Syria’s territorial integrity. We are ready to provide the necessary support to Syria in the fight against all forms of terrorism, be it ISIS or the PKK/YPG. We have discussed the steps to be taken against this terrorist group and those who support them. And we have reiterated that we stand with the Syrian government when it comes to the control of the north-eastern parts of Syria. We will make sure that a climate of peace and trust, and free of terrorism, will prevail in our common geography,’ the Turkish president said.
‘The Syrian people will never forget what Turkey has done’
For his part, Al-Sharaa stressed to journalists that ‘the Syrian people will never forget Turkey’s stance, as a state and as a people. Our culture and our society are the same. We have to cooperate in all areas. One of the areas of common cooperation will be security, especially in the north and east of Syria,’ said the Syrian president, who also called on the international community to pressure Israel to return to the 1967 borders; he also called for the relaunch of trade with Turkey.
Ahmed al-Sharaa was appointed in late January as Syria’s interim president with the task of representing the country internationally, almost two months after a lightning offensive by Syrian rebels seized major cities and led to the end of the dictatorship of Assad, who fled into exile in Moscow. Turkey has since been one of the first countries to reopen its embassy in Damascus, and both Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan and Turkish secret service chief Ibrahim Kalın were the first to meet Al-Sharaa in the Syrian capital after the overthrow of the regime.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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