Turkish Defense Minister sets conditions for withdrawal of Turkish troops from Syria
Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Güler, in remarks on the sidelines of the “Ephesus-2024” drills, confirmed that his country may consider withdrawing its forces from Syria, once the security of the Turkish border is fully guaranteed.
Turkish media on Saturday quoted Güler as saying, “We’re ready to offer our support for the adoption of an inclusive constitution in Syria, the holding of free elections, and ensuring comprehensive normalization and a secure environment”.
Güler noted, that negotiations with Damascus are currently limited only to the Astana track, which is sponsored by Türkiye, Russia and Iran.
“We can only think about withdrawing from Syria if necessary after it’s done and ensuring that our borders are fully secured… In fact, the problems in the region arose from the power vacuum they created in Damascus; So, if they had the capacity to do so to ensure border security, the situation wouldn’t have come to this point”.
On Türkiye’s readiness to carry out a military operation against the Kurdish SDF forces in Syria, Güler denied the existence of such preparations, because Turkish forces are always ready and carry out operations whenever needed.
He explained that Turkish forces are currently carrying out strong strikes with continuous and comprehensive operations and achieving great successes in the war against terrorism, rather than military operations with limited purpose and duration as in the past.
