The leader of Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), an ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has called for renewed dialogue between Turkey and Syria amid rising unrest in the country, urging Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to engage with Ankara without preconditions for his own benefit, the private DHA news agency reported.
MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli, who spoke at a party meeting on Tuesday, said Turkey should take a stance that prioritizes its national interests in the wake of the ongoing civil war that has flared up in a lightning rebel offensive in Syria, while he criticized Assad for not responding thus far to Turkey’s efforts at the normalization of relations
“Assad has not taken Turkey’s extended hand. Establishing unconditional contact with Turkey is first in Assad’s own interest and then in the interest of his country. … The Assad regime cannot survive by retreating into its shell,” the MHP leader said.
Turkey and Syria severed diplomatic relations in 2011 after the outbreak of the Syrian war, but Erdoğan, who then supported rebel efforts to topple President Assad, has sought rapprochement with Damascus in recent months.
Assad has approached Erdoğan’s efforts at normalization cautiously. In a July interview, he said he was open to meeting with Erdoğan but that it depended on the “content” of the encounter, noting that Turkey’s presence in Syria is a key sticking point.
Assad hinted that a halt of Turkey’s “support” for terrorism in Syria and its withdrawal from Syrian territory would be “reference points” for a meeting with Erdoğan.
Syria accuses Turkey of supporting terrorism due to its backing of opposition groups in the country.
Turkish forces and their proxies have controlled swaths of territory in northern Syria since Ankara in 2016 began successive ground operations to expel Kurdish militants it links with terror attacks on Turkish soil.
The Turkish president, whose efforts at normalizing relations with Assad have so far failed, told reporters after attending the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit held in Riyadh last month that he is “still hopeful” about mending ties with the Syrian leader.
Bahçeli’s remarks came after Syrian rebels and their Turkish-backed allies launched their biggest offensive in years, seizing control of Syria’s second-largest city of Aleppo from forces loyal to Assad.
More than 400 people, most of them combatants, have so far been killed in the Syria offensive that began Wednesday, a Syrian rights group said.
The flareup has also seen pro-Turkish rebel groups attacking government forces and Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) fighters in and around Aleppo, according to a Syrian war monitor.
Turkey sees the YPG as an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has led a decades-long war against Ankara.
Syrian rebel groups supported by Turkey also on Sunday took from Kurdish forces the town of Tal Rifaat, located next to a strip of land long occupied by Turkey in northern Syria from which it has launched operations against the Kurds.