Assad says no progress in talks with Turkey

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad told parliament on Sunday that there has been no progress in talks with Turkey to normalise relations between the two countries. He clarified that Syria did not place a precondition that Turkish troops must be withdrawn from the Syrian border for talks to begin.

The possibility of talks between neighbours and rivals has been on the table ever since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had come back to power last year for a record third time. Erdogan had declared that he would meet the Syrian president any time, hinting at reconciliation. The relations between the two countries have been strained, and even broken, ever since the civil war in 2011 when there were anti-Assad protests by the Syrian opposition. Damascus had managed to beat back the opposition even as life got disrupted in northern Syria, and millions of Syrians fled, mainly to Turkey. There are 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey. The Turkish opposition had been insisting that the refugees should be sent back to Syria because of the economic burden and social disruption caused by the presence of the refugees. President Assad said on Sunday, “The initiatives did not yield any results worth mentioning despite seriousness and genuine keenness of mediators.” The reference is to the efforts being made by Iran, Iraq and Russia to bring the leaders of two countries to meet and resolve the issues.

The move by Turkey is being seen as Ankara’s failure to dislodge the Assad government, and the defeat of the Syrian opposition. Interestingly, Turkey‘s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in an interview last month, “We are not changing our position regarding the Syrian opposition.” He said that the decision of the Syrian opposition would be made on its own, implying that it does not depend on the official Syria-Turkey relations and the possible reconciliation between Damascus and Ankara.

But he made it clear that Turkey would not abandon the Syrian opposition. He said that Syrian opposition had fought alongside Turkish troops for Turkey’s security. And it is not possible to forget their sacrifices. “It is not possible for us to possible for us to forget this sacrifice…It is out of the question for us to forget these sacrifices and let them down.” Of course, it remains unclear in what form and to what extent Ankara will support the Syrian opposition.

There is however the realisation all round that peace in the region is essential for the economic development of the neighbouring countries, that Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey have a stake in the political stability of Syria. And Russia, which had been edged out in many areas of influence outside Europe, continued its role in Syria. And Moscow is keen about the continuation of the Ba’athist regime of Bashar Al Assad. The Americans had been opposed to Assad for a long time and they tried to help the anti-Assad forces. But it has not worked. So, Syria has been the last place where the old cold war between Americans and Russians had been fought.

Apart from the possibility of reconciliation between Syria and Turkey, there is also the need for the Assad government to speak to the opposition and achieve a reconciliation on the domestic front. The stability of the Assad government will hugely depend on maintaining peace at home.

Similarly, the Syrian opposition will have to give up its agenda of removing Assad. Perhaps, the solution lies in the opposition getting to play its legitimate role in the politics of the country. And this would require Assad to make overtures to the opposition. It has become evident in the experience of many countries across continents that peace at home is the requisite for peace with neigbours.