Al-Assad, Erdogan likely to meet in Uzbekistan
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The presidents of Syria and Turkey are reportedly likely to meet soon in light of both of the countries' delegations meeting in Uzbekistan.
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Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, meets with (at that time) Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, at al-Shaab presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Oct. 11, 2010 (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi)
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will potentially meet on the sidelines of the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit (SCO) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the Iranian Tasnim News Agency reported on Saturday.
The Iranian news outlet underlined that the meeting would take place on the condition of the meeting between the Turkish delegation and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
The 2022 annual summit of the SCO Heads of State Council will be held on September 15-16 in the central Asian country.
Erdogan said earlier that during his trip to Sochi, Putin asked him to participate in the Shanghai meeting, and he would probably participate.
Tasnim reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin had asked Al-Assad to attend the meeting in Shanghai, meaning it is likely that a meeting between the Syrian president and his Turkish counterpart will take place.
Recently, Turkish media, as well as political and party officials, have been talking about the necessity of restoring ties between Ankara and Damascus in addition to a rapprochement between Turkey and Syria, stressing that it was one of the ways out of Turkey's internal and external problems. It was argued that this would also bring peace and stability to the region.
The head of the Patriotic Party (Vatan Partisi), Dogu Perincek, revealed earlier in the day that his party was preparing a delegation to travel to Syria, pointing out that several Turkish officials will accompany him on his trip to Damascus.
Perincek told Birgum newspaper that the exact date of the visit will be determined based on the plans of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
Perincek headed in March of 2015 a delegation that met with Al-Assad and a number of Syrian officials.
Officials from the Patriotic Party recently announced that they will head to Damascus in the coming weeks to meet with the Syrian President.
This comes as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed on Friday that Ankara's main contention is the "fight against terrorism" in northern Syria, adding that the US continues to support terrorism there as a justification for Ankara's military occupation of the country's north.
He claimed that Ankara was not eyeing Syria, adding that Syria's territorial integrity was important to Turkey.
