Türkiye Welcomes Iran’s Engagement in Normalization Path with Syria

 A demonstration in Idlib against the Turkish-Syrian rapprochement on December 30, 2022 (AFP)
A demonstration in Idlib against the Turkish-Syrian rapprochement on December 30, 2022 (AFP)
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Türkiye Welcomes Iran’s Engagement in Normalization Path with Syria

 A demonstration in Idlib against the Turkish-Syrian rapprochement on December 30, 2022 (AFP)
A demonstration in Idlib against the Turkish-Syrian rapprochement on December 30, 2022 (AFP)

Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said that his country welcomed Iran’s participation in the ongoing talks with Syria under Russian mediation.

He added that Tehran’s presence in the talks would facilitate the elimination of terrorist threats from Syrian territory, secure his country’s borders, and guarantee the safe and voluntary return of Syrian refugees to their homeland.

Kalin’s remarks, which he made in Ankara on Wednesday, came hours after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed that Moscow supported Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s interest in settling and normalizing the situation between the two neighbors, Türkiye and Syria.

During a press conference with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, in Moscow on Tuesday, Lavrov announced that an agreement was reached over Iran’s participation in the normalization process.

“It is logical that the upcoming contacts be dedicated to the normalization of Turkish-Syrian relations, with the mediation of Russia and Iran (the two guarantors with Türkiye of the Astana process),” he said.

Lavrov and Shoukry stressed the need to preserve the unity, integrity and sovereignty of Syria, resolve its political crisis, and respect the rights of its citizens to determine their own destiny and the fate of their state.

Earlier this week, Erdogan emphasized the necessity to maintain meetings between his country, Russia and Syria, with the possibility of Iran joining, in order to achieve stability in northern Syria.

He added that his country’s relations with Russia were “based on mutual respect.”

“Although we have not been able to obtain at the present time the result we desire, with regard to developments in northern Syria, we call for holding tripartite meetings between Türkiye, Russia and Syria,” the Turkish president said during a meeting with a group of youth on Sunday, as part of his campaign for the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for May 14.



At Least 12 Dead in Indonesia Bus Crash

People inspect the wreckage of a passenger bus after it sped out of control on a downhill road and overturned in Padang Panjang, West Sumatra province, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (AP Photo/M.Sulthan Azzam)
People inspect the wreckage of a passenger bus after it sped out of control on a downhill road and overturned in Padang Panjang, West Sumatra province, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (AP Photo/M.Sulthan Azzam)
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At Least 12 Dead in Indonesia Bus Crash

People inspect the wreckage of a passenger bus after it sped out of control on a downhill road and overturned in Padang Panjang, West Sumatra province, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (AP Photo/M.Sulthan Azzam)
People inspect the wreckage of a passenger bus after it sped out of control on a downhill road and overturned in Padang Panjang, West Sumatra province, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (AP Photo/M.Sulthan Azzam)

A bus carrying 34 passengers sped out of control on a downhill road and overturned in Indonesia’s West Sumatra province on Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and leaving others injured, police said.
The inter-province bus was on its way to Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, from Medan in North Sumatra province when its brakes apparently malfunctioned near a bus terminal in West Sumatra’s Padang city, said Reza Chairul Akbar Sidiq, the director of West Sumatra traffic police.
The Associated Press quoted him as saying that police were still investigating the cause of the accident, but survivors told authorities that the driver lost control of the vehicle in an area with a number of steep hills in Padang after the brakes malfunctioned.
The 12 bodies, including those of two children, were mostly pinned under the overturned bus, Sidiq said. All the victims, including 23 injured people, were taken to two nearby hospitals, he said.
Thirteen of the injured were treated for serious injuries, Sidiq said. The driver was among those in critical condition.
Local television footage showed the mangled bus on its side, surrounded by rescuers from the National Search and Rescue Agency, police and passersby as ambulances evacuated the injured victims and the dead.
Road accidents are common in Indonesia because of poor safety standards and infrastructure.