Turkey has four points to discuss in quadripartite meeting next month

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Huriyyet
13 Apr 2023 15:04

This comes after Syria laid down three conditions for the meeting.

Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad and then Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a meeting in Istanbul on June 7, 2010 (AFP)

In light of the upcoming Syria-Turkey-Russia-Iran talks confirmed by Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, an agenda may not have been set, but Turkey already has four points set to discuss:

1- Reviving the political process: Turkey intends to maintain contact with what it dubs the "Syrian opposition" in hopes of bringing them and the government together on the Astana platform.

2- The return of asylum seekers: Given that Turkey, Russia, and Iran are guarantor countries of the Astana process, it is expected that they will play a guarantor role in this process, with a potential new amnesty to be implemented.

3- Humanitarian aid: Turkey assures that there can be flexibility to deliver humanitarian aid to all parts of Syria without any obstacles or interruptions, especially after the devastating February 6 earthquakes that hit both Syria and Turkey.

4- Fight against terrorism: The country plans on clearing the PKK-YPG groups in northern Syria but through cooperation, adding that Syria's territorial integrity is significant for Turkey. However, Syria wants the Turkish Armed Forces to withdraw from its land as it demands “more concrete commitments to territorial integrity."

For the meeting due to take place in early May in Moscow, state news agency SANA reported that the Syrian delegation will focus during the meeting on three points, "Ending the illegal Turkish presence on Syrian territory, non-interference in the Syrian internal affairs, and combating terrorism in all its forms.”

Last week, Cavusoglu said, "A meeting of four foreign ministers is planned, we discussed it with [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov during his visit. We think that such a meeting will take place in early May, I believe in Moscow. We received such information from the Russian side," pointing out that the objective of the meeting would be discussing a political settlement for the Syrian crisis.

The Turkish Minister added that the so-called road map for normalization with Syria would require a quadripartite meeting at the presidential level.