Turkey to normalise ties with Syria and Egypt

Turkey’s Prime Minister, Binali Yildrim, said on Friday that his government is seeking more friends and so, after normalising relations with Russia and Israel, it is planning to normalise ties with Syria and Egypt. He made his comments during an evert marking his government’s first 100 days in office. No timeline was announced for the plan.

Such measures have demonstrated a degree of pragmatism in Turkish foreign policy. Ankara has a strained relationship with Israel over the Palestinian issue, and has had tense links with Russia since Turkish jets down a Russian fighter last November.

Links with Egypt have been difficult ever since Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi overthrew the first freely-elected President, Mohamed Morsi, in the 2013 coup. Turkey has recently toned-down the rhetoric, though, and is less of an open critic of the former general.

Although Turkey has called for Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to quit and accuses him of killing his own people, the government in Ankara is now paying much more attention to what is happening on the ground.