Turkey’s relations with Syria may improve like its dialogue with Egypt: Erdogan
Shafaq News/ Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that he doesn’t rule out that relations between Ankara and Damascus may improve, as did dialogue with Cairo.
"He [Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi] was very glad over this meeting, we were also happy. I hope that the process [of the normalization of relations between Turkey and Egypt] will continue [at the level] of our ministers. In the next process, as it was settled with Egypt, it may be settled with Syria. There is no room for affront in politics," he said at a meeting with the youth in the city of Konya, which was aired by the TRT television channel.
Erdogan and al-Sisi held their first personal meeting on the margins of the 2022 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony in Qatar on November 19. The two presidents exchanged greetings and shook hands.
After Erdogan’s talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi in August 5, the Turkish mass media reported that Ankara was looking at a possible establishment of direct contacts between the Turkish and Syrian leaders. The Turkish authorities said back then that no such talks were planned and contacts between Ankara and Damascus were only maintained at the level of special services.
After the European Political Community in Prague meeting on October 6, Erdogan said that there were no immediate plans of his personal meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Such a meeting, in his words, would take place as soon as time was ripe for it.
