After a break that lasted 11 years... What are the motives for rapprochement between Turkey and Syria?

Former Turkish diplomat, Ambassador Fikret Ozer, commented in his statement to the "Beyond the News" program on the rapprochement between Ankara and Damascus by saying that the interests of the two countries have intersected during this period, stressing that Turkey will demand strong guarantees from the Syrian regime to secure the return of Syrian refugees to their country.

After an 11-year estrangement, the Turkish and Syrian defense ministers met in Moscow the day before yesterday, according to Turkish sources who spoke to Al-Jazeera, in the presence and participation of their Russian counterpart.

The sources said that the ministers agreed to form joint committees of defense and intelligence officials, whose meetings will start at the end of next January in Moscow, followed by meetings in Ankara and Damascus.

The Turkish diplomat said that his country has tried to solve the Syrian crisis in several ways through the tracks of Astana and Geneva, and it is now seeking to revitalize these tracks, which have reached a dead end.

He pointed to Turkey's keenness to secure its internal security and its borders with Syria, as well as its keenness to secure the return of Syrian refugees to their country, and said that this issue is subject to the ongoing negotiations between the Syrian and Turkish parties.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar had stated that the return of Syrian refugees should be voluntary, safe and honorable, and that Turkey had expressed its willingness to work jointly in this regard.

In the same context, the Turkish guest ruled out that the ongoing understandings and meetings with the Syrian regime are related to the upcoming Turkish elections, or that they aim to raise the popularity of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In his interview with the "Beyond the News" program, Ozer recalled the steps taken by Ankara to normalize its relations with the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The consequences of the Turkish-Syrian rapprochement

In turn, Stephen Heydmann, a researcher at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, presented a different reading than that presented by the Turkish guest, and said that the Turkish-Syrian rapprochement is related to changing the conditions on the ground in northern Syria and has nothing to do with political matters, and that Turkish President Erdogan was under pressure from the opposition to adopt a more position. More radical than the Syrian refugees who are in Turkey.

The American guest emphasized that the understandings between Ankara and Damascus were dictated by Turkish local conditions, and that Russia took advantage of what it considered the crisis within Erdogan's party in order to push for the normalization of relations between Turkey and Syria.

He described what is happening between Ankara and Damascus as a very important strategic shift, and said that there is a major change in the speech of President Erdogan and senior officials in Turkey aimed at opening a new page with the Syrian regime.

The researcher at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution did not hide Washington's apprehension of the Turkish-Syrian rapprochement in terms of its consequences on the issue of fighting the Islamic State and on the humanitarian conditions on the ground, stressing that the Syrian regime had previously made promises related to securing refugees returning to Syria, but it did not fulfill it. his promises.

It is noteworthy that the first reaction to the Russian-Turkish-Syrian understandings in Moscow was the emergence of demonstrations in several cities and towns in northwestern Syria, to emphasize adherence to the constants of the Syrian revolution.

The demonstrators demanded the implementation of International Resolution No. 2254, which stipulates the transfer of power in Syria to an independent and delegated transitional governing body.

The demonstrators also called on the international community not to give or grant any legitimacy to the regime after it caused the death of hundreds of thousands of Syrians, displaced them from their cities, and left thousands of others in prison.