Thousands of Syrians demonstrated this Friday in regions under rebel control to denounce the call issued the day before by the head of Turkish diplomacy, Mevlut Çavusoglu, for a reconciliation between the regime and the insurgent forces.
Since the beginning of the war in Syria in 2011, Ankara has asserted itself as a staunch opponent of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and supported several Syrian rebel groups, in addition to having deployed soldiers in the border areas of Syria and carried out several military incursions in the north of the neighboring country.
On Thursday, Çavusoglu chose to call for the “reconciliation of the opposition with the regime in Syria”, to establish “lasting peace”a statement marking a turning point in Turkey’s position, and when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was still defining the Assad regime in May.
The statement by the Turkish minister provoked the anger of Syrian opponents and rebels, who called for mobilization against Turkey in regions controlled by Turkish soldiers and allied Syrian militias in the province of Aleppo (north), and in sectors still held by jihadists and factions rebels.
After the weekly Muslim Friday prayer, protesters shouted “No to reconciliation” in Aazaz, Al-Bab and Afrine, in the province of Aleppo, and in the province of Idlib (northwest), under the control of ‘jihadist’ and rebel groups.
On Thursday, shortly after the press conference of the head of Turkish diplomacy in Ankara, protests broke out in Al-Bab.
Faced with this reaction, Tanju Bilgiç, spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry, today reaffirmed Turkey’s “full support for the opposition” to the Al-Assad regime, without referring to the term “reconciliation”.
The same official also stressed that his country will continue to contribute to finding “a lasting solution” to the conflict.
Erdogan has been one of Bashar Al-Assad’s main critics, calling him a “bloodthirsty tyrant” since 2011. In 2020, deadly clashes took place to oppose the Syrian and Turkish forces.
For its part, the Syrian regime has repeatedly accused Turkey of support “terrorist groups” In Syria.
Turkey in particular accuses the Syrian Kurdish forces, who control most of the northeast of the country, of being “terrorists” and has already carried out several operations against the People’s Protection Units (YPG) militias on Syrian territory.
During the press conference, Çavusoglu stressed that since 2011 “many people have been killed [na Síria], many left the country. These people could return, including those [refugiados] from Turkey. A lasting peace is needed.”
However, he denied any direct contact between Erdogan and Assad, but acknowledged the resumption of contacts between the intelligence services of the two countries and a brief meeting with his Syrian counterpart in October 2021.
Source: Observadora
