Turkey Warns Against Disturbing North Syria’s Fragile Balance

Smoke billows after an attack on the Idlib countryside in northwestern Syria. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Smoke billows after an attack on the Idlib countryside in northwestern Syria. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Turkey Warns Against Disturbing North Syria’s Fragile Balance

Smoke billows after an attack on the Idlib countryside in northwestern Syria. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Smoke billows after an attack on the Idlib countryside in northwestern Syria. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Turkey has warned that targeting civilians and harming stability in Syria prevents a lasting solution to the conflict in the war-torn country.

Turkey’s National Security Council stressed that targeting civilians would harm stability in Syria and disturb the “fragile balance” in the region.

In a statement on Thursday, the Council highlighted the responsibility of actors and parties involved in the Syrian conflict to achieve peace, stability and prosperity for Syrians.

Meanwhile, developments in opposition-held Idlib province indicated that there was no significant change in the situation following the meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday.

The two presidents held talks in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi and discussed curbing renewed violence in northwest Syria.

They agreed to abide by the previous agreements and understandings, whether on Idlib or northeast Syria.

Erdogan said a roadmap to achieve stability in Idlib is being prepared between both countries’ defense and foreign affairs ministers.

Military escalation resumed on Friday in the de-escalation zone in northwestern Syria after hours of calm in Idlib.

Russian warplanes resumed their aerial bombardment in al-Ziyyarah towns in Sahl al-Ghab in the northwestern countryside of Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.



Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Meets HTS Leader in Damascus

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
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Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Meets HTS Leader in Damascus

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)

Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, Türkiye’s foreign ministry said, without providing further details.

Photographs and footage shared by the ministry showed Fidan and Sharaa, leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, which led the operation to topple Bashar al-Assad two weeks ago, walking ahead of a crowded delegation before posing for photographs.

The two are also seen shaking hands, hugging, and smiling.

On Friday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that Türkiye would help Syria's new administration form a state structure and draft a new constitution, adding Fidan would head to Damascus to discuss this new structure, without providing a date.

Ibrahim Kalin, the head of Türkiye’s MIT intelligence agency, also visited Damascus on Dec. 12, four days after Assad's fall.

Ankara had for years backed opposition fighters looking to oust Assad and welcomed the end of his family's brutal five-decade rule after a 13-year civil war. Türkiye also hosts millions of Syrian migrants it hopes will start returning home after Assad's fall, and has vowed to help rebuild Syria.

Fidan's visit comes amid fighting in northeast Syria between Türkiye-backed Syrian fighters and the Kurdish YPG militia, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast and Ankara regards as a terrorist organization.

Earlier, Türkiye’s defense minister said Ankara believed that Syria's new leadership, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) armed group which Ankara backs, will drive YPG fighters from all territory they occupy in the northeast.

Ankara, alongside Syrian allies, has mounted several cross-border offensives against the Kurdish faction in northern Syria and controls swathes of Syrian territory along the border, while repeatedly demanding that its NATO ally Washington halts support for the Kurdish fighters.

The SDF has been on the back foot since Assad's fall, with the threat of advances from Ankara and Türkiye-backed groups as it looks to preserve political gains made in the last 13 years, and with Syria's new rulers being friendly to Ankara.