Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Shara, is predicted to debate the way forward for Syria-Turkey relations on Tuesday throughout a gathering with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
The assembly within the Turkish capital, Ankara, shall be Mr. Erdogan’s first with Mr. al-Shara, the insurgent chief who led the opposition offensive that toppled Syria’s former autocratic leader, Bashar al-Assad, final month.
Each international locations have lots using on the way forward for their relationship.
Turkey shares a protracted border with Syria, hosts greater than three million Syrian refugees who fled throughout the nation’s 13-year civil struggle and had chilly relations with Mr. al-Assad for years earlier than Mr. Erdogan started talking of mending ties not lengthy earlier than his ouster. Turkey worries that instability in Syria may trigger extra refugees to flee or stop these already in Turkey from returning house.
Turkey additionally has navy posts in northwestern Syria, immediately backs Syrian armed teams close to the border and considers a Kurdish-led militia within the northeast a grave nationwide safety menace.
For Mr. al-Shara, who was appointed interim president final week by a bunch of insurgent leaders, Turkey may present essential assist as he faces the monumental duties of unifying Syria, reviving its battered financial system and remodeling a constellation of militias right into a nationwide military.
Turkey has been interacting with armed teams that Mr. al-Shara has led since early within the struggle as a result of they managed vital territory alongside Turkey’s southern border, and Turkish officers had been among the many first to go to him in Damascus after Mr. al-Assad’s fall.
However Turkey, struggling to repair its personal financial system after years of populist spending and persistently excessive inflation, would battle to supply Syria with the financing it must restart the financial system and start rebuilding communities that had been diminished to rubble throughout the struggle.
So Mr. al-Shara has additionally labored to construct ties with the US, European international locations and Gulf Arab leaders. Final week, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, grew to become the primary head of state to go to Mr. al-Shara in Damascus. And on Monday, Mr. al-Shara met in Saudi Arabia with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the dominion’s de facto ruler. To what extent these leaders will assist fund the brand new Syria stays to be seen.
Mr. al-Shara, a former member of Al Qaeda, introduced a public break with the group years in the past and now expresses extra reasonable Islamist views. He faces the extra hurdles of heavy sanctions imposed on Syria to punish the Assad regime and the truth that he and the militia he leads stay categorised as terrorist by the US and different international locations.
Turkey, too, nonetheless classifies Mr. al-Shara’s militia, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, as a terrorist group.
