Syria says restoring ties with Ankara depends on Turkish troop withdrawal

DAMASCUS: Syria’s foreign ministry said Saturday a normalization of ties with neighboring Turkiye depended on Ankara withdrawing troops from its territory.
The statement came days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he might invite Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad to Turkiye to try and reconcile ties between the two countries that went sour after war broke out in Syria in 2011.
And earlier on Saturday Erdogan went further when he announced the imminent end to the Turkish forces’ operation against Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq and Syria.
Turkiye has launched successive offensives across the border in Syria to expel Kurdish forces from border areas in northern Syria, with pro-Turkish forces controlling two vast border areas of northern Syria.
Erdogan supported early rebel efforts to topple Assad at the start of the war in 2011, but reversed course in recent years, with top officials from both countries meeting in Russian-mediated talks.
Earlier this month Erdogan pointed to a possible meeting with Assad in Turkiye “at any moment.”
“Now we have come to such a point that as soon as Bashar Assad takes a step toward improving relations with Turkiye, we will show him the same approach,” Erdogan said Sunday.
The foreign ministry in Damascus, in its statement of Saturday, said that any bid to restore ties between Syria and Turkiye “must be built on clear foundations that ensure the desired results... foremost of which is the withdrawal of illegally present forces from the Syrian territory, and the fight against terrorist groups that threaten not only Syria’s security, but also the security of Turkiye.”
Diplomatic ties between the two countries were severed at the start of the war in Syria, which erupted after a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.
It has spiralled into a devastating war involving foreign armies and militants, and killed more than half a million people.