Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa will reportedly make his first foreign visit to neighboring Türkiye in the coming period.
Al-Sharaa’s visit will be symbolic of the support Türkiye has given to Syria’s anti-regime forces during the revolution and he will be thanking President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, according to Iran’s Mehr News Agency.
Neither Türkiye nor Syria has commented on the visit.
Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalın and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan were the first to visit al-Sharaa in Damascus days after anti-regime forces led by al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), took the capital and Bashar Assad fled to Moscow.
Türkiye backed the Syrian opposition against Assad when the civil war broke out in 2011.
Calling for a peaceful transitional period and an inclusive government, Ankara has since led the diplomatic efforts to help Syria regain its normalcy and ensure stability in neighboring countries where developments directly affect Türkiye.
Erdoğan has vowed to help the new Syrian administration form a state structure and a new constitution as the country looks to rebuild after 13 years of civil war. Energy cooperation is also on the table as Turkish officials ready to pay a visit to Damascus for talks on potentially transmitting electricity to ease power shortages.
Ankara also says it trusts al-Sharaa’s administration in the fight against terror groups in Syria, namely the PKK and its Syrian offshoot the YPG.
Al-Sharaa has said his administration would not allow the country to serve as a base for the terrorist PKK/YPG and reiterated that Syria must remain united.
The PKK/YPG occupies swathes of northeastern Syria in cooperation with the United States under the pretext of the fight against Daesh. The PKK is responsible for more than 40,000 deaths in Türkiye, including women and children. It maintains strongholds in northern Iraq and Syria to create a self-styled “Kurdish state.”