Moscow-Backed Talks Between Turkey, Syria Set to Resume Following Pause

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad during their meeting in Sochi on May 17, 2018. (Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP/Getty Images)

Moves to restore ties between Turkey and Syria—after 12 years of bitter hostility—appear to be back on track following a weekslong hiatus.

The reconciliation process, encouraged by Moscow, was temporarily suspended last month after both countries were rocked by devastating earthquakes.

The next round of Moscow-hosted talks between Turkish and Syrian officials are likely to be held next month, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on March 27.

“We’re getting ready [to host the meeting],” Bogdanov told Russia’s TASS news agency.

People walk past collapsed buildings following a devastating earthquake in the town of Jinderis, Syria, on Feb. 9, 2023. (Ghaith Alsayed/AP Photo)

He added that Russian mediation efforts aimed at normalizing Syrian–Turkish relations, which he described as an “important strategic goal.”

NATO member Turkey severed ties with Damascus in 2011. Since then, it has supported armed groups in Syria devoted to President Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow. Moscow, by contrast, is a staunch supporter of Assad and his government. Since 2015, Russia has maintained forces in Syria at Assad’s invitation.

Amid longstanding differences over Syria, Turkey maintains good relations with Russia, with which it shares extensive trade ties and a lengthy maritime border.

In December 2022, Moscow hosted landmark talks between the defense ministers of Turkey and Syria, the first meeting between high-ranking officials of those nations in more than a decade.

Quakes Kill Tens of Thousands

The meeting was meant to proceed with a discussion between foreign ministers, to be followed in turn by a summit between Assad and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

But the momentum toward full-blown rapprochement was blunted on Feb. 6, when Turkey and Syria were rocked by back-to-back earthquakes. The quakes left 50,000 people dead in Turkey and thousands more dead in northern Syria and resulted in widespread damage.

Now that the dust has settled, preparations appear to be underway for a fresh round of Moscow-hosted Turkey-Syria talks.

On March 15, Assad visited Moscow, where he met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. During the visit, Assad restated his willingness to hold talks with Turkey as long as they “served the interests of the Syrian people” and led to “concrete results.”

On March 25, Erdogan held a phone call with Putin during which the two leaders stressed the need to follow through with the normalization process, according to a statement released by Erdogan’s office.

Notably, future talks will likely include Iranian representatives as well. Like Moscow, Tehran staunchly supports Damascus and maintains forces in Syria.

U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters prepare for battle against ISIS  militants in Raqqa, northeast Syria, on June 22, 2017. (Hussein Malla/AP Photo)

During a visit to Ankara this month, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian voiced his country’s desire to see “a thaw in relations” between Syria and Turkey.

At a joint news conference with Amirabdollahian, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tehran is prepared to help iron out “differences of opinion” between Ankara and Damascus.

Washington, meanwhile, remains firmly opposed to reconciliation—by anyone—with Assad, describing the latter as a “brutal dictator.”

The United States also has a military presence in Syria, especially in the country’s northeast, where it arms and supports the Kurdish YPG militant group.

An offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the YPG is viewed as a terrorist group by both Damascus and Ankara.

Washington says it must keep a military presence in Syria to prevent the resurgence of the ISIS terrorist group, which was largely destroyed—organizationally at least—in 2019.

US Forces Under Fire

Recent days have seen mounting tension between Iran and U.S. forces in Syria, who are said to number roughly 900 troops.

On March 23, a U.S. base in northeastern Syria was attacked by an aerial drone, which U.S. defense officials claimed was “of Iranian origin.” According to the Pentagon, a military contractor was killed and several service members were injured.

The United States responded by striking targets in eastern Syria associated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, the Defense Department said in a statement.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights later said the U.S. strikes had killed 19 people, including Syrian troops, militiamen, and foreign—presumably Iranian—fighters.

On March 25, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani condemned the U.S. strikes as “terrorist attacks,” claiming that civilians also were killed.

Denying Iran’s involvement in the purported drone strike, he accused Washington of using the threat posed by the terrorist group ISIS as a pretext for keeping U.S. troops in Syria.

“The U.S. claim that it is present in Syria to fight ISIS, in whose creation it played a substantive role, is a pretext for continuing its occupation and plundering Syria’s natural resources,” Kanaani was quoted as saying by Iran’s Fars news agency.

Following the strikes, U.S. President Joe Biden vowed that the United States would “act forcefully” to protect its military forces in Syria.