ERDOGAN: WHOEVER OBSTRUCTS SYRIA’S PATH TO PEACE, STABILITY WILL FIND US STANDING WITH DAMASCUS

Wed 16 April 2025:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed that “Whoever obstructs Syria’s path to permanent peace and stability will find us standing alongside the Syrian government.”

He made the statement during a press conference held following a Turkish cabinet meeting at the Presidential Complex in the capital, Ankara, yesterday.

Erdogan explained that Turkiye will continue to prioritise “diplomacy, peace, and justice in a world increasingly marked by geopolitical tensions.”

He stressed that the possibility of returning to the status quo in Syria before the fall of the Assad regime was “off the table”, noting that Syria has entered a “transformative new era.”

“Just as we didn’t allow a terror corridor to divide Syria before [in the north by the PKK], we will not permit any other corridor to do so now,” he said.

“Turkey will not allow Syria to be dragged into a new vortex of instability,” Erdoğan told attendees at the Antalya diplomacy forum on the southern Turkish coast, accusing Israel of “trying to undermine the 8 December revolution”, in reference to the insurgency that toppled the former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad after decades in power.

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“We are in close dialogue and in common understanding with all influential actors in the region, especially Mr Trump and Mr Putin, regarding the preservation of Syria’s territorial integrity and stability,” he added.

Attendees at the forum included the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov as well as Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa, who met Erdoğan on the sidelines of the conference in Antalya.

The Turkish presidency said Erdoğan reiterated Ankara’s efforts to lift sanctions on Syria, and told Sharaa that Turkey “welcomes the fact that those who want chaos in Syria to occur again are not given an opportunity”.

Tensions between Israel and Turkey have grown since Assad’s overthrow, peaking after Israeli forces pounded three military bases across Syria with airstrikes earlier this month. Reuters reported that Turkish military teams had scoped out the main airport in Hama province as well as the T4 and Palmyra air bases in Homs, assessing the runways, hangars and infrastructure to see if forces and military hardware could be deployed there as part of a planned joint defence pact between Ankara and Damascus.

The defence minister Israel Katz called airstrikes “a clear message and warning for the future”.

Israel has struck military sites in Syria hundreds of times since Assad fled to Moscow four months ago, destroying military assets including missile systems and air defences that the transitional government in Damascus had hoped to inherit.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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