ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he and Syria’s newly appointed president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, had discussed steps to be taken against Kurdish militants in northeast Syria during talks in Ankara.

Speaking alongside Sharaa at a press conference in Ankara, Erdogan said Turkiye was ready to help Syria’s new leadership in the battle against both the militant Islamic State group and Kurdish militants, and added he believed the voluntary return of Syrian migrants would accelerate as Syria became more stable.

He also said Turkiye would continue its efforts for sanctions imposed under former President Bashar al-Assad to be lifted, and that it was important for Arab and Muslim countries to support the new government — financially and otherwise — in the period of transition.

The talks began shortly after Sharaa landed in the Turkish capital, the official said. He arrived on an official Turkish plane, footage from the airport showed.

He flew in from Saudi Arabia, where he was seeking support from the wealthy Gulf nation to finance Syria’s reconstruction and revive its economy after 13 years of civil war.

Turkiye, which has had a years-long connection with Sharaa, reopened its diplomatic mission in Syria and sent its spy chief and top diplomat for talks with him just days after his Islamist-rooted HTS overthrew Assad on Dec 8.

Despite being constrained by its own economic crisis, Turkiye is offering to help with Syria’s recovery.

In return, Turkiye is keen to secure Damascus’s support against Kurdish militants in northeastern Syria, where the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been battling Ankara-backed forces.

Turkey opposes the SDF on grounds its main component, the YPG, is aligned with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a separatist group outlawed in Turkiye. The SDF controls much of Syria’s oil-producing northeast, where it has enjoyed de facto autonomy for more than a decade.

But Turkiye sees it as a danger to its own security and has threatened to take military action to keep Kurdish forces away from its borders despite US efforts to broker a truce.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2025