Assad
-
Syrian foreign minister rejects normal ties with Turkey without end to occupation
Syrian foreign minister Faisal Mekdad said on Saturday that Turkey would have to end its military presence in his country to achieve a full rapprochement, Reuters reported.
-
Sweden needs to extradite 130 ‘terrorists’ to Turkey for its NATO bid: Erdogan
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has demanded the extradition of some 130 people from Sweden to Turkey whom he called “terrorists” in order for his country to approve Sweden’s NATO membership, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
-
Sticking points between Syria and Turkey / Michael Jansen
Last week’s meeting in Moscow of the Syrian and Turkish defense ministers appears to have led to the suspension of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s threat to mount a major military operation against US-sponsored Syrian Kurdish forces engaged in the fight against Daesh. Erdogan regards the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) as offshoots of Turkey's Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) which has staged an insurgency since 1984. He blames the YPG for the November 15th bombing which killed six and injured 81 in a pedestrianized market in central Istanbul. The YPG has flatly rejected this charge.
-
Role of Syrian Kurds in Erdogan's fate and Turkey-US relations
According to a considerable number of experts, the attack of the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the Syrian Kurds can win him in the next elections in Turkey, but this attack on America's allies in Syria can worsen the current cold ties between Turkey and the United States.
-
Turkish election the keyword for Erdogan's normalization with Assad
The pragmatism of decision-makers in Ankara surprised most observers of Turkish-Syrian relations. Normalization between the Turkish president and the president of the Syrian regime was not something that would have come to mind only months ago. The expectations were that the contacts would remain on an indirect intelligence level mediated by Moscow or Tehran, or at best a direct security contact.
-
Erdogan, Assad to likely hold phone talk – report
Some news sources have announced the possibility of a holding telephone conversation between the presidents of Turkey and Syria in the near future, Iranian Mehr News agency reported.
-
Tough days ahead for Syrian refugees as anti-migrant sentiment grows in Turkey / Turkmen Terzi
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has been in power since 2002, has found itself losing support amid soaring inflation and high unemployment. Millions of Syrian refugees are at increased risk of xenophobic attacks from the nationalist segment of Turkish society who blame Syrians for the worsening economic situation. The AKP has opened the country’s border to millions of Syrians since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011. Ultranationalist figures in Turkey today are recognized as the descendants of the Ottoman Empire’s Union and Progress Party (CUP), also known as the Young Turks, a political group that embraced a Turkification policy which excluded the empire’s ethnic identities such as Arab and Kurdish citizens.
-
Assad, Russian defense minister discuss military cooperation
Syrian President Bashar al Assad met Russian Defense Minister, Sergey Shoigu on Tuesday and discussed military cooperation between Russian-Syrian forces.
-
Syrian soldiers killed and wounded in Damascus bus bombing
A Syrian army soldier was killed and 11 others were wounded when an explosive device planted in a military transport bus went off in Damascus on Tuesday, state media reported, quoting a military source.
-
Big-power rivalries deepen Syria’s fragmentation / Khaled Yacoub Oweis
When Farhad, a Syrian-Kurdish aid worker, tried to reach his Aleppo village this week to visit his mother, Turkish intelligence agents stopped and interrogated him.
-
How Turkish threats in northeast Syria moved the SDF closer to Assad
Turkey's threats in northeastern Syria have pushed the SDF into a Russian-sponsored rapprochement with the Assad regime.
-
UAE FM visits Syria, meets Bashar al-Assad
The UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan has traveled to Damascus as a sign of rapprochement to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government for the first time since 2011, local Syrian media reported.
-
Cemil Bayik says future of Kurds lays with Damascus
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) second-in-command Cemil Bayik has appeared to distance the movement from the Rojava administration in northern Syria, insisting that the future for Kurds lay with Damascus.
-
After Jordan, will Turkey take the plunge with Assad? / Amberin Zaman
After the Jordanian king spoke by phone with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the first time since the Syrian conflict began over 10 years ago, Turks are now asking if Ankara will be next to reconcile.
-
Erdogan and Putin discuss Syria in Wednesday meeting
Peace in Syria is dependent on relations between Ankara and Moscow, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday during a summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
-
Syrian Kurds, opposition take cases to Washington / Elizabeth Hagedorn
Delegations from Kurdish-held northeast Syria and the Turkey-backed Syrian National Coalition will meet separately with US officials this week.
-
Moscow does not believe in resolving Kurdish issue in Syria: official
Russia is only looking for its own interests and does not believe in resolving the political issue in Syria," said the head of the public relations office of the Syrian Kurdistan Future Movement.
-
Turkey faces gathering storm in Syria
Erdogan’s choices limited as Russian-backed Syrian forces increase attacks, weigh final assault on Idlib
-
A new offer from Assad to the Kurds / Musa Ozugurlu
While the world is busy with Afghanistan, there are significant developments ongoing in Syria. The main development is a statement from Bashar al-Assad regarding the Kurds, who are key players in the Syrian crisis.
-
Macron prevents Assad's invitation to Baghdad summit: report
French President Emmanuel Macron has reportedly blocked the invitation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to attend Baghdad regional summit.
-
Raising Kurdistan Region flag in Tehran is a historic development in Iran's position: politician
The head of the Syrian Kurdish Initiative Party welcomed the raising of the flag of Kurdistan Region at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport, dubbing it "a historic development in the position of the Islamic Republic of Iran."
-
US sanctions on Turkey-backed Syria faction offer solace to Kurdish victims / Amberin Zaman
On Oct. 12, 2019, three days after Turkish forces invaded northeastern Syria with President Donald Trump’s blessings, a rising young Kurdish politician named Hevrin Khalaf was ambushed by Ahrar al-Sharqiyah, a Turkish-backed armed Sunni brigade, and savagely executed. When the militants were done with the 35-year-old, her body was riddled with bullets, the flesh from her scalp ripped off, and her leg and skull fractured from repeated blows. Apparently unworried about retribution, the militants posted a video of the war crime online.