Turkey’s Erdogan to Meet Putin in South Africa to Discuss Syria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin during the annual BRICS summit in South Africa to discuss the ongoing conflict in Syria, he announced on Wednesday.

The BRICS summit brings together the leadership of the nations of Brazil, China, Russia, India, and South Africa. Erdoğan was invited to represent Turkey on the sidelines of the summit.

“Developments in Syria, whether in Tal Rifaat or Manbij, are not going as desired. The only places [in Syria] that are going in the desired direction are Afrin, Jarablus, and al-Bab,” Erdoğan said on July 25.

Erdoğan expressed concern over the Syrian regime’s current offensive in Daraa where Russian backed airstrikes have led to a displacement crisis of around 350,000 civilians.

“The issue about Daraa is problematic. We will put this issue on our agenda again. There is also the issue of Idlib, which we will discuss, because in these places anything can happen at any time,” he said. “What we want is that the Syrian people will be protected from these attacks and particularly the brutal attacks of some organizations in the region.”

Both Turkey and Russia are heavily involved in the ongoing civil war, with Putin’s troops supporting Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian Arab Army while Erdogan’s forces take on Kurdish-aligned rebels and Islamic State. However, the two nations have closely co-operated in their attempts to bring an end to the longstanding conflict and have held negotiations alongside Iran over the possibility of creating “de-escalation” zones across the country.

According to the state-run Anadolu Agency, Erdogan recently held a call with Putin over the Assad regime’s recent victory in Idlib, an area controlled by rebel forces since 2014 where he expressed concern over the targeting of innocent civilians.

“Erdoğan stressed that the targeting of civilians in Daraa was worrying and said that if the Damascus regime targeted Idlib in the same way, the essence of the Astana accord could be completely destroyed,” the agency said, adding that Erdogan warned the “avoidance of negative developments” would be keeping the agreement alive.

Relations between the two countries have been strained in recent years because of their joint involvement in Syria. In 2015, Erdogan refused to apologize after shooting down a Russian warplane along the Syrian border, although the two men appear to have reconciled their differences after a number of bilateral meetings.

Following Erdogan’s election victory last month, Putin praised Erdogan’s “great political authority and mass support,” adding that he would help “solve Turkey’s pressing social and economic tasks (and) strengthen the country’s position on the international arena.”

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