Meeting between Turkish and Syrian Defense Ministers in Moscow, a first since 2011

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar met his Syrian counterpart Ali Mahmoud Abbas during a meeting in Moscow on December 28, 2022. AFP/File

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This is a milestone in the Turkish-Syrian rapprochement that Russia has been promoting covertly for several years, and that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been publicly calling for since last summer.

The Turkish and Syrian Defense Ministers, Hulusi Akar and Ali Mahmoud Abbas, spoke on Wednesday December 28 during a meeting in Moscow with their Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu. 

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With our correspondent in Istanbul

,

Anne Andlauer

It was the first official meeting at this level between Ankara and Damascus since the beginning of the war in Syria in 2011. According to official Turkish sources, the discussions in Moscow focused on "

the crisis in Syria, the question of refugees and efforts in the joint fight against all terrorist groups

”.

Ankara welcomed a " 

constructive

 " dialogue and announced the continuation of these trilateral exchanges.

Long fiercely opposed to the idea of ​​restoring diplomatic relations with neighboring Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently changed his tone.

Last month, he even considered "

possible

" a meeting with Bashar el-Assad, whom he nevertheless described as "

murderer

" for more than ten years.

Erdogan's ambitions on the border with Syria

If Recep Tayyip Erdogan resolves to such a reversal, it is not only under Russian pressure, but also because he considers that the implementation of his objectives in Syria must now go through it.

The Turkish president aims to create a " buffer zone

" on the Turkish-Syrian border

to send back some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees on his territory, whose presence is increasingly unpopular within Turkish society.

He also continues to promise the launch of a new ground offensive against the Kurdish forces in northern Syria, with the approval if not of Damascus, at least of Moscow.

Ankara would like to bring the Syrian regime to consider Kurdish fighters as a common enemy.

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To read also: Syria: artillery duels continue between the Turkish army and the Kurds

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  • Turkey

  • Syria

  • Russia

  • Bashar al-Assad

  • Recep Tayyip Erdogan