Turkey–Russia–Syria Axis Taking Shape After Erdogan Calls for Meeting With Assad

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Feb. 14, 2019. Sergei Chirikov/AFP via Getty Images

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has voiced his country’s willingness to cooperate with Russia and Syria against Kurdish militant groups based in northern Syria.

“We want to take steps with Syria and Russia, as a trio,” Erdogan was cited as saying on Dec. 15 by Turkey’s Anadolu Agency.

He also called for a trilateral summit between himself, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

When asked how Moscow viewed Erdogan’s proposal, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said, “Positively.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, reviews an honor guard at the Syrian Presidential Palace in Damascus, Syria, on July 17, 2021. Syrian Presidency via Facebook via AP

“We always welcome bringing relations between sovereign neighbors back to normal,” Bogdanov told Russia’s TASS news agency on Dec. 16.

“This has been repeatedly mentioned at all levels.”

Turkey maintains good relations with Russia, with which it shares extensive commercial ties and a long maritime border in the Black Sea.

While a member of the NATO alliance, Turkey has consistently declined to support Western-led sanctions on Moscow.

Ankara’s relations with Damascus, by contrast, have been marked by deep hostility for the past 10 years, with Turkey supporting armed groups in Syria devoted to Assad’s overthrow.

An explosion rocks the Syrian city of Kobani during a reported suicide car bomb attack by ISIS terrorists on a People's Protection Unit (YPG) position in the city center, on Oct. 20, 2014. Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images

Since 2015, Russia has maintained troops in Syria to support Damascus against rebel groups, some of which have enjoyed Turkish support.

But in recent weeks, Erdogan has signaled—at Moscow’s prompting—a willingness to mend fences with Assad.

“First, our [Turkey’s and Syria’s] intelligence agencies should come together, then our defense ministers, and then our foreign ministers should meet,” Erdogan said in recent remarks.

Following these initial steps, a trilateral summit should be convened between himself and his Russian and Syrian counterparts, he said.

According to Bogdanov, who also serves as Putin’s special envoy for the Middle East and Africa, Moscow is already in talks with Damascus to arrange the meeting.

Ongoing Operations in Syria

Since Nov. 20, Turkey has used aircraft and artillery to strike targets in northern Syria associated with the YPG, the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Turkey, along with the United States and the European Union, views the PKK as a terrorist group.

The Turkish strikes, which remain ongoing, were initially prompted by a deadly bombing in Istanbul on Nov. 13, for which Ankara blames the YPG.

Despite its close ties with the PKK, the YPG is backed by the United States, which ostensibly uses it as a bulwark against the ISIS terrorist group.

The YPG is a leading component of the Washington-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of dissident Syrian groups cobbled together in 2015. The SDF currently controls much of northeastern Syria, which has become a de facto autonomous enclave over which Damascus exerts little authority.

Since 2016, Turkey has carried out three major offensives in northern Syria with the stated aim of protecting its 565-mile-long border from attacks by the YPG.

Late last month, three people were killed in Turkey’s southern Gaziantep Province in a cross-border mortar attack, which Ankara blamed on the Kurdish militant group.

Turkey has repeatedly threatened to launch a fourth offensive in northern Syria—a move opposed by Washington.

Late last month, the Pentagon warned that Turkish strikes on YGG targets “threaten the safety of U.S. personnel who are working with local partners in Syria to defeat ISIS.”

Nevertheless, Erdogan said on Dec. 15 that Turkey would “take matters into its own hands” if the United States continued to give the YPG “thousands of truckloads” of arms and equipment.

The Pentagon’s press office didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment on Erdogan’s remarks.

Turkish Leader Slams EU Criticisms

Erdogan also had harsh words for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who recently criticized what has been perceived as deepening ties between Ankara and Moscow.

Borrell, Erdogan said, “cannot appoint or regulate our relations with Russia.”

Last week, Borrell sent a letter to the European Parliament in which he reportedly described Turkey’s close economic ties with Russia as “a cause for great concern.”

In the letter, the EU’s top diplomat also reportedly criticized Ankara’s refusal to support Western-led sanctions on Moscow.

Responding to the criticism on Dec. 15, Erdogan said that Borrell “has neither the quality nor the capacity to make such a decision on these matters.”