The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov revealed, on Friday, a proposal submitted by Moscow to return to the Adana agreement signed by Ankara and Damascus in 1998 in order to combat terrorism in northern Syria, within the framework of efforts aimed at normalizing Syrian-Turkish relations.
In a speech delivered at the Moscow Institute of International Relations, Lavrov said, “This agreement assumes the existence of a terrorist threat, and in order to stop this terrorist threat, Türkiye will have the right, in agreement with Damascus, to send its anti-terrorism forces to a certain depth of Syrian territory”.
Lavrov indicated that the agreement is still valid and no one has denounced it, while the documents of the Astana track confirm respect for Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and Türkiye always supports these documents.
Lavrov talked about another reason for the problems of normalization between Damascus and Ankara, related to the illegal activities of the United States in northern and eastern Syria, which feed the separatist tendency of the Kurdish organizations, which the Turks classify as a threat to their security, and therefore these operations are linked to each other.
Lavrov confirmed that the draft road map for normalization between Damascus and Ankara is under study, and that contacts are under way to reach a generally acceptable situation.
