Turkish Security Council member: Erdogan unlikely to meet Assad before elections

MOSCOW, March 6 – RIA Novosti. Turkish President’s Security and Foreign Policy Council member Chagry Erhan told RIA Novosti that it is unlikely that Presidents of Turkey and Syria Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Bashar Assad will meet before the presidential elections in Turkey.

As Erdogan has said before, the presidential elections in Turkey will be held on 14 May. The president is expected to sign a decree to that effect on March 10.

“President Erdogan is not against such a meeting in principle, but devastating earthquakes changed everything. The President’s entire schedule has changed – he spends three days a week in the disaster zone. Less than 74 days to the election. Erhan said, “Elections are even a way to have a photo taken with Assad. I don’t think it will be possible to find it. Maybe there will be a meeting after the election,” he said.

Erdogan said earlier that he had proposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the leaders of Turkey, Russia and Syria meet, but that the heads of the intelligence services, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should meet first.

In December, Russia hosted the first meeting between Turkish and Syrian defense ministers in 11 years. In 2011, civil war broke out in Syria. Maintaining close relations with Damascus before this conflict, Turkey sided with Syrian President Bashar Assad’s opponents. Since then, Turkey’s relations with Syria continue to be challenging. But in recent weeks, both sides and some media outlets have been talking about the possibility of a gradual normalization.

It is planned that the Foreign Ministers of the Russian Federation, Syria and Turkey will come together to resolve the differences between Ankara and Damascus.