Türkiye's FM rules out meeting between Erdoğan, Assad in Uzbekistan

There will be no meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his counterpart in Syria, Bashar al-Assad, at an upcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in September, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said.

Speaking to the Haber Global news broadcaster today (August 23), Çavuşoğlu ruled out a meeting between Erdoğan and Assad at the summit slated for September 15-16 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, noting that Assad was "not invited" to the event.

Iran-based media outlets had claimed that the two leaders would meet in Uzbekistan.

Çavuşoğlu also underlined that steps must be taken for lasting peace in Syria, adding that Damascus should not see the "opposition" as "terrorists."

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"No preconditions"

"From the very beginning, Türkiye said that the most important process is the political one," he said.

"There are no preconditions for dialogue, but what is the purpose of the talks? The country needs to be cleared of terrorists, our border security is important, and Syria's territorial integrity and political integrity are important," he said.

"It is important that people can return to the country safely. It's not necessarily a requirement, but what are its purpose and goal? Our Syria policy is always solution-oriented."

Türkiye has signaled raproachment with Damascus following Erdoğan's visit to Vladimir Putin in Russia's Sochi.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on August 12 revealed that he had a meeting with his Syrian counterpart in October during a Non-Aligned Movement summit in Belgrade in what was the highest-level contact between Ankara and Damascus in a decade.

Erdoğan said on Friday that Türkiye's aim in Syria is not to topple the Assad administration, and diplomatic relations have been going on between the two countries. (VK)