Rapprochement with Russia will help resolve Syrian unrest: Ankara

“I am of the opinion that rapprochement between Turkey and Russia will facilitate the resolution of the Syrian question. This is not so easy. I do not think that Turkey and Russia will leave their important differences of opinion behind by tomorrow and come to a common point but I think [rapprochement] will ease [the solution] of the Syria issue,” deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş told TRT in an interview late July 14. 

Turkey and Russia broke the ice after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin in late June to express his deep sorrow over the downing of a Russian jet on Nov. 24, 2015, and his wishes to normalize bilateral relations. 

Turkey’s perspective with regard to the Syrian question was based on the will of the Syrian people instead of what some members of the international community preferred, Kurtulmuş said. “There can be a transitional period. A new Syria constitution, political parties’ law and new parties could be founded after the closure of the Baath Party, because it’s now a bloody-handed party,” he said.

Different elements of the Syrian people would also be included into this new political framework, which would be controlled by the international community, he said. “The decision to be given by the Syrian people under this process would be absolute,” he added. 

Syrian people will not accept Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who bore responsibility for the deaths of 450,000 people, the displacement of 8 million others and the collapse of Syria’s history, as the leader of the future Syria, Kurtulmuş stated. 

No country has the power to resolve the Syrian crisis alone, the deputy prime minister stressed, adding, “Therefore there is a need of a joint perspective for peace.”