Russia welcomes Turkiye proposal for trilateral mechanism with Syria

Russia has welcomed Turkiye’s proposal for a trilateral summit with Syria, as Ankara continues to pursue reconciliation with Damascus after a decade of hostility.

According to the Russian news agency Interfax, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov yesterday responded to reporters who asked about the Kremlin’s view of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s proposal this week for a “trilateral mechanism” with Russia and Syria.

“We always welcome issues concerning the normalisation of relations between neighbouring sovereign states,” Bogdanov said. While mentioning the importance of ascertaining Syria’s reaction to the initiative, which is not yet known, the Deputy Foreign Minister stated that Turkiye’s proposal “can only be welcomed.”

When Erdogan announced to reporters his suggestion to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin following a trip to Turkmenistan, he also said that Putin “viewed it favourably.”

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Someone who apparently may not view it favourably, however, is the Syrian regime’s president Bashar al-Assad himself, according to reports and sources earlier this month which said that Assad rejected Russia’s attempts to arrange a meeting with Erdogan.

The Turkish president’s openness to meet with his Syrian counterpart has been conveyed in recent months, confirming that intelligence talks and cooperation with Damascus have restarted and been ongoing, and saying that a meeting with Assad is possible.

Ankara’s efforts to reconcile with the Assad regime come after a decade of hostility, following Syrian security services’ brutal crackdown on peaceful protestors and the destruction it caused during the ensuing and ongoing civil war.

Erdogan’s reconciliation drive is assessed to be part of efforts to return millions of Syrian refugees back to their country, satisfy Turkish voter bases prior to the forthcoming elections next year, and attain the Syrian regime’s assistance to crackdown on the Kurdish militias in north-east Syria along the border with Turkiye.

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