Nezavisimaya Gazeta: The way of the rapprochement between Assad and Erdogan

An article at the Russian Nezavisimaya Gazeta, by Igor Sobotin, discussed the expected Turkish-Syrian rapprochement.

Igor Sobotin wrote: The revision of the Adana Agreement on measures to combat the PKK may be one of the results of the increased contacts between the Syrian and Turkish authorities.

Some Arab newspapers share these assumptions, in their comments on indirect indications that appeared on the background of the Russian-Turkish summit in Sochi, that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not oppose expanding communication channels with official Damascus.

As the independent Turkish expert Orhan Gvarli told Nezavisimaya Gazeta, the request that Ankara and Damascus solve their problems in the context of a bilateral dialogue between them comes from the Russian side.

This can be understood from the results of the Sochi summit between Putin and Erdogan.

However, he added, “However, there is no confidence in Türkiye’s readiness now to negotiate with Assad.

We have elections next year, and that, I think, could affect it negatively”.

In turn, an expert at the Russian International Affairs Council, Kirill Semenov, believes that it is related to the continuation of contacts between the Syrian and Turkish intelligence, to which it is possible to add informal meetings between the diplomats of the two countries.

He told Nezavisimaya Gazeta: “It should be noted that Damascus and Ankara have practically not cut off contacts between their intelligence and military on the Kurdish issue.

Since 2016, contacts have been taking place on the Algiers platform, and then there were meetings in Damascus and Qamishli”.