Turkiye: former PM warns of rapprochement with Syrian regime

The former Prime Minister of Turkiye, Ahmet Davutoglu, has warned his country about rapprochement with the Syrian regime. The head of the Future Party also slammed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for planning to normalise relations with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

Speaking at a meeting at his party’s headquarters, Davutoglu expressed dismay at the Turkish moves towards rapprochement with the Syrian regime, especially after the summits held in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and the Russian resort of Sochi. “Erdogan is making a detour only because [Russian President Vladimir] Putin wants it,” claimed Davutoglu. The Syrian regime, he pointed out, is not taking any steps to restore ties with Turkiye, similar to the steps taken with Egypt, as if it is doing a favour for Turkiye.

Davutoglu revealed that there is a general shift in Turkish policy towards Syria, and that it is not only Erdogan who is making such a shift. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and the chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party, Devlet Bahçel, are also taking this path.

“Does Assad have the will to make peace with his people?” Davutoglu asked. “Imagine that we forcibly moved thousands of Syrians to the border, and told them you will cross to the other side to lands controlled by Turkiye. It will do nothing but increase the population there and Turkiye will lose its credibility with tens of thousands of Syrians on the border… Syrian refugees will return [to Turkiye] when they know that Bashar Al-Assad is still in office and that they will be oppressed again at any moment.”

He pointed out that abandoning the eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo in late 2016, based on a Turkish-Russian understanding, led to increasing numbers of refugees coming from Syria at that time. The former prime minister also warned that the guarantees provided by Russia and the Syrian regime for the safe return of refugees cannot be trusted, which could force displaced citizens in and around Idlib to form a new wave of asylum seekers heading for Turkiye.

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“If the Syrian refugees leave today, they will return in large numbers tomorrow. We are talking about a regime that has brutally killed 600,000 people, including some by using chemical weapons,” Davutoglu added.

His remarks come at a time when Turkish official statements have been reiterating the possibility of restoring relations with the regime of Bashar Al-Assad. “We must take advanced steps with Syria through which we can spoil many schemes in this region,” said Erdogan on Friday. He added that political or diplomatic dialogue cannot be completely abandoned between countries, and such dialogue can and should take place at any time.