Syrian President Bashar Assad, proper, shakes fingers with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. | Picture credit score: AP
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated on Sunday he might invite his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad to Turkey “at any time” in an indication of reconciliation after the 2011 battle severed ties between Ankara and Damascus.
Erdogan’s feedback come after tensions escalated over the previous week after a mob stormed and vandalized Syrian companies and property in a central Anatolian city.
“We are able to ship an invite (to Assad) at any time,” Erdogan advised reporters aboard a aircraft from Berlin, the place he watched Euro 2024, the official Anadolu information company and different media reported.
Turkey initially aimed to topple the Assad regime when the Syrian battle erupted with a violent crackdown on peaceable protesters in 2011 and supported rebels calling for his ouster.
However extra not too long ago, Ankara has turned its consideration to stopping the opening of what Erdogan known as a “terrorist hall” in northern Syria in 2019.
He has lengthy stated he may rethink ties with Assad as his authorities works to make sure the secure and voluntary return of Syrian refugees.
Chatting with reporters, Erdogan stated some leaders, together with Russian President Vladimir Putin, advised mediating a gathering with Assad in Turkey.
“We’ve reached a degree the place as quickly as Bashar al-Assad takes a step in the direction of bettering relations with Turkey, we are going to present him the identical method,” Erdogan stated.
Violence
Turkish authorities arrested greater than 470 folks this week after anti-Syrian riots broke out in a number of cities following allegations {that a} Syrian man had harassed a Syrian minor in Kayseri.
On Monday, Erdogan blamed the opposition for fuelling tensions and condemned anti-Syrian violence as “unacceptable”.
The destiny of Syrian refugees is a scorching matter in Turkish politics, with Erdogan’s opponents in final 12 months’s presidential election vowing to ship them again to Syria.
Turkey, which hosts some 3.2 million Syrian refugees in keeping with UN figures, has been rocked by episodes of xenophobic violence a number of occasions lately, typically triggered by rumours unfold on social media and instantaneous messaging apps.
Unrest in Kayseri unfold to different cities, together with Istanbul, this week, whereas clashes between armed protesters and guards at Turkish positions in northern Syria killed seven folks.
Turkey has launched a sequence of offensives in Syria since 2016 focusing on Kurdish militias, Islamic State jihadists and forces loyal to Assad.
Professional-Turkish forces in Syria now management two huge swathes of territory alongside the border.
On Monday, a whole bunch of Syrians demonstrated throughout the Ankara-controlled space, with some armed protesters attacking Turkish vans and navy posts and eradicating Turkish flags.
Erdogan has vowed to disclose “what soiled fingers” sparked the clashes in northern Syria.
In response to the Syrian Observatory, 4 border crossings with Turkey have been closed following the violence. The Turkish authorities has not confirmed something about this.