Uncomfortable bedfellows

Turkey's president emerged from a meeting in Russia with closer Kremlin ties and fresh rhetoric on the Assad regime. Is a reconciliation on the cards, asks Borzou Daragahi

- Borzou Daragahi

Much of the rest of the world was zeroed in on the war in Ukraine. But when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew to meet President Vladimir Putin in the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi last month, he had one top item on his agenda: getting his host to greenlight his military plans against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.

Few know what the two men spoke about on August during nearly four hours of closed-door meetings inside the walls and upon the lush green grounds of the Bocharov Ruchey palace, the 1950s summer residence built for the leadership of the Soviet Union. But as often happens after long meetings between Putin and other world leaders, Erdogan emerged from the meeting a changed man.

After more than 11 years of openly agitating against the regime of Bashar al-Assad and backing his armed opponents, he began spouting a starkly different message on Syria, calling for reconciliation and dialogue with the Damascus leadership.

“The opposition and the regime in Syria need to reconcile,” Erdogan told reporters some days later during a separate trip abroad. “Turkey’s goal in Syria is not to defeat Assad but to find a political solution, and calling for “political dialogue or diplomacy” with the Damascus regime.

For many, the new approach was a shock. Turkey has been the main backer of the Syrian factions that have fought a desperate decade-long war against the Damascus regime and has clashed militarily numerous times with Assad’s forces.

Erdogan turned against Assad after he launched a violent military campaign to crush both peaceful and armed opponents who rose up against the Russian and Iranian-backed Damascus dictatorship in 2011. Now there are whispers that Erdogan and Assad could meet on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit this week in Uzbekistan.