Turkey and Syria step up contacts: Reuters

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The Turkish intelligence chief held multiple meetings with his Syrian counterpart in Damascus over the last few weeks, which indicates a sign of Russian efforts to encourage a thaw between the two states, four sources revealed. 

The head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT), Hakan Fidan, and the head of Syria's intelligence service, Ali Mamlouk, just recently met in the Syrian capital, according to a local source close to Damascus.

The most recent meetings - including a two-day visit by Fidan to Damascus at the end of August - had sought to lay the ground for sessions at a higher level, the source said.

Reuters quoted the regional source who is close to President Al-Assad as saying that the Turkish-Syrian contacts had made a lot of progress, without giving details.

A third regional source said Turkish-Syrian relations had begun to thaw and were advancing to a stage of "creating a climate for understanding."

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the contacts, which have not been publicly disclosed.

According to a senior Turkish official and a Turkish security source, as reported by Reuters, Fidan, one of President Tayyip Erdogan's closest confidants, and Mamlouk examined how the two nations' foreign ministers could eventually meet during the discussions.

"Russia wants Syria and Turkey to overcome their problems and achieve certain agreements... which are in the interest of everyone, both Turkey and Syria," said the Turkish official, who stressed that one of the big challenges in the talks is Turkey's desire to include the Syrian armed opposition in any talks with Damascus, the official added.

While Fidan and Mamlouk have spoken intermittently over the last two years, the pace and timing of recent meetings suggest a new urgency to the contacts, according to Reuters.

Read next: Ankara orders 'Syrian Opposition Coalition' to leave Turkey

Yesterday, informed sources told Sputnik that a Turkish intelligence service "informed the members of the so-called 'Syrian Opposition Coalition' of the need to leave the Turkish territories by the end of this year."

The sources added that "this statement, which constitutes a turning point for this [political] entity, whose activities are based in Turkey, came after a political decision that was taken in Turkey recently against the background of the Syrian-Turkish rapprochement under the auspices of Russia."

Sputnik revealed that "President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government decided to close all offices of the opposition coalition in Turkey and to stop funding its members in accordance to a specific timetable that ends by the end of this year at the latest."

The sources added, "A number of members of the Syrian Opposition Coalition were informed by the Turkish security services that they need to find another place to carry out their political activity outside the Turkish territories and to end all political and media activities related to this coalition by the end of this year at the latest."

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