Response from Istanbul

The US decision to announce early on Saturday, the lifting of sanctions against Syria was probably the reason for a surprise visit a few hours after the announcement of the US, de facto president of Syria, to Constantinople. The Turkish president welcomed Ahmed al -Sarah in the afternoon with an official ceremony at his office in Dolmabahce. The meeting of the doors lasted about 2.5 hours.

This was attended by the Turkish Foreign and National Defense Ministers, the head of MIT, the president of the defense industry, and on the part of Syria, the Foreign Minister and other officials. Tayyip Erdogan, he was pleased, said that much brighter and peaceful days are waiting for Syria and that Turkey would continue to stand by her. He welcomed the lifting of sanctions, said that it is important to maintain Syria’s territorial integrity and the country and the army to be ruled by a single center. Finally, he assured that Turkey-Syria relations will continue to develop, especially in energy, defense and transport, and that Turkey will fulfill the demands of neighboring and brotherly relations, as it has done so far.

US attitude

But before returning to Damascus, the Syrian leader had another major meeting, with the new US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barak, who also assumed the role of a special envoy to Syria. In his meeting with Al Sarah, Barack reiterated the support of the United States to the Syrian people. He stressed that President Trump’s goal is to allow the new government to create the conditions not only for the Syrian people to survive, but also to prosper, as well as to achieve the original goal of the Americans, namely the Isis defeat. Turkish analysts had already pointed out that since President Trump announced a week ago that sanctions would be lifted during Syria, there would be a significant acceleration of the US and Turkey co -operation on Syria.

Is urgent for the Kurdish

Some believe that Erdogan has asked Al Sarah yesterday to finish the Syrian Kurdish issue, and the YPG to deliver his weapons. This is directly interested in Ankara, who wants to quickly achieve the goal of resolving the Kurdish, both inside and outside Turkey.

The meeting probably included discussions on the process of handing over the PKK weapons, as the organization agreed under the order of the prisoner of Abdullah Ocalan. The procedure is not easy especially for the offshoots of the organization located in other countries. However, the Syrian offshoot of the PKK, that is, the YPG/SDF organizations, have already signed an agreement with the new Damascus government.

The fighters will hand over their weapons to the Syrian administration and integrate into the newly established Syrian army. But Pjak, the Iranian PKK offshoot, announced that it would not deposit its weapons. He said the Iranian Kurds are seeing Ocalan’s call as “an important and positive step in resolving the Kurdish issue in the Middle East in general”, but will continue the armed struggle against Tehran. “As a pjak, the organization announced, we will neither submit our weapons nor will we dissolve. PKK’s decision to dismantle is binding for them, not for us. “

PJAK, operating since 2004, has about 2 to 3000 members and is considered a terrorist organization by Tehran, Ankara and Washington. However, Iran’s ambassador to Turkey said that Tehran supports any process that will eliminate terrorism in the region and enhance security between neighboring countries.