Turkey calls for “improving the situation” in Syria to “guarantee peace and stability”

Ankara stresses that it “respects the territorial integrity” of Syria despite its military presence in the north

Dec. 30 () –

The Turkish Defense Minister, Hulusi Akar, stressed that the trilateral meeting with his Syrian and Russian counterparts discussed possible actions to “improve the situation” in the Arab country and in the region to “guarantee peace, tranquility and security.” stability”.

“We have stressed that we respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all our neighbours, especially Syria and Iraq, and that our only goal is to fight terrorism. We have no other purpose,” he said, the Turkish state news agency reported. , Anatolian.

The Turkish Army has launched various offensives against Kurdish groups in Iraq and Syria in recent years –mainly the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG)–, which has been denounced by Baghdad and Damascus as a violation of their sovereignty.

Thus, he has revealed that he has transferred to Moscow and Damascus that Ankara “makes efforts to guarantee the security of the country, the nation and the borders” and to “avoid more migrations from Syria to Turkey”, at the same time that it has opted to resolve the crisis within the framework of resolution 2254 of the United Nations Security Council.

Akar has stressed that this dialogue will not go against the interests of the Syrian opposition and the refugees in Turkey. “It is beyond doubt that we can do something against our Syrian brothers and sisters living in Turkey and Syria,” she said.

“We have never considered and will never consider behavior that could put them in trouble. Everyone should know this and act accordingly,” the Turkish Defense Minister concluded, as reported by the Hurriyet newspaper.

The meeting, the first of its kind since the war in Syria broke out in 2011, took place in Moscow to address the Syrian crisis, in a sign of a possible rapprochement between Ankara and Damascus, whose bilateral relations have been strained by the conflict. and Turkey’s support for various rebel groups.

The meeting took place after the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, proposed to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in mid-December to hold a trilateral meeting with the Syrian president, Bashar al Assad, and thus open a process of negotiations.

The war in Syria broke out due to the repression by the security forces of a series of pro-democratic demonstrations in the framework of the ‘Arab Spring’ and which led to calls for the resignation of Al Assad and subsequently the creation of dozens of groups rebels to fight the Army.

For its part, Russia is one of the main international backers of the Syrian president and its military intervention in 2015 allowed government forces to repel rebel advances and once again take the initiative on the battlefield.