Official: Turkish leader plans visit to Syria following FM's trip

Temporary chargé d'affaires for Türkiye's embassy in Syria's capital Damascus Burhan Koroglu has said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may visit Syria following the trip of Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

"After the foreign minister, our president is also considering visiting Damascus," the diplomat said during an interview with TVNET, Caliber.Az reports per Russian media.

He expressed hope that the relations between Türkiye and Syria in the new era will resemble the ties from the period of the Ottoman Empire.

Earlier, Erdogan told reporters that the foreign minister would visit Syria in the near future. He also mentioned that Türkiye would assist the new Syrian authorities in establishing governance institutions, preparing a constitution, and initiating consultations on these matters with their leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa (known by the nickname Abu Mohammed al-Jolani). 

In an interview with France 24 on December 21, Fidan confirmed the upcoming visit, though he did not specify the exact dates. On December 20, Turkiye newspaper wrote that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may visit Damascus within the next 15 days. 

During the visit, he plans to meet with Ahmed al-Sharaa and perform prayers at the Umayyad Mosque, the biggest mosque in Syria. An emergency air corridor will be established for Erdogan during his flight to Syria, along with security forces along Hama, Homs, and Idlib lines, where Turkish radars will be activated. 

On November 27, armed opposition groups launched a large-scale offensive against Syrian army positions in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. By the evening of December 7, they had captured Aleppo, Hama, Daraa, and Homs. On December 8, they entered Damascus, which had been abandoned by Syrian government forces. Bashar al-Assad resigned as the president of Syria and left the country. 

On December 10, Mohammed al-Bashir, who had led the opposition-formed Salvation Government in Idlib province since January 2024, announced his appointment as the head of the Syrian government for the transitional period, which will last until March 1, 2025.

By Naila Huseynova