Posted on 01/15/2020 11:31:38 AM PST by Texas Fossil
The Turkish and Syrian heads of intelligence met in Moscow on Monday, in the first official contact in years despite Ankaras longstanding hostility to President Bashar al-Assad, a senior Turkish official and Syrian news agency SANA said.
According to Reuters, both sides have said there have been intelligence contacts but that this is the first explicit acknowledgement of such a senior meeting.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan backs rebels who fought to topple Assad during Syrias nine-year civil war. Erdoğan described Assad as a terrorist and called for him to be driven from power, which earlier in the war had appeared possible.
But Assads allies Russia and Iran helped turn the conflict around, and with US forces now withdrawing from northeast Syria, Assads Russian-backed troops are sweeping back into the region just as Turkish troops move in from the north.
Turkeys intelligence chief, Hakan Fidan, and his Syrian counterpart discussed a ceasefire in Syrias Idlib and possible coordination against the Kurdish presence in northern Syria.
The discussions included the possibility of working together against the YPG, the terrorist organization PKKs Syrian component, east of the Euphrates River, a Turkish official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Ankara deems the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) a terrorist organization and the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a separatist group that has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkeys Southeast.
The SANA news agency said Syrias intelligence chief called on Turkey to respect the sovereignty of Syria, its independence and its territorial integrity as well as immediate and full withdrawal from the entire Syrian territory.
Despite backing opposing sides in Syrias conflict, Ankara and Moscow have grown closer, their ties strengthened by joint energy projects and Turkeys purchase of Russian air defenses to the anger of its NATO ally the United States.
Surprise? Not
Russia, Turkey, and Assad plot?
Yep
Syria Ping
Spy convention?
hum.....not much of a secret was it...
key word “officially.”
I guess they would call it that.
If you google the title it is in a lot of places. Much of the wording the same. This is less well known source, but reliable.
Yes.
But I doubt Assad’s people talked much to Erdooo’s people.
This is unusual.
Ping for later
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.