President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held a phone call with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte to discuss the latest situation in Syria since the collapse of the Bashar Assad regime, the Turkish Presidency said Tuesday.
Türkiye has always defended the preservation of Syria’s territorial integrity and stability since the civil war broke out, with Ankara continuously stressing Syria should be governed by the Syrian people, Erdoğan told Rutte.
He confirmed that Türkiye will continue to do its best to build a whole Syria rid of terrorism, the presidency said.
Anti-regime groups led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) overthrew Assad in an offensive that lasted just 12 days and ended with the fall of Damascus on Sunday. Many areas fell to the opposition forces without a fight. Russian media reported that Assad was given asylum in Moscow.
NATO member Türkiye, which has backed the main opposition Syrian National Army (SNA) against Assad, has called for an “inclusive” new government in Syria and urged international actors, especially the U.N., to reach to the Syrian people and support the establishment of a new administration.
Although not directly involved in the HTS-led push, Türkiye expressed support for the various forces that ended up ousting Assad and has said it hopes his removal will allow millions of Syrian refugees to return home.
Erdoğan on Monday evening repeated Türkiye has “no interest in expanding its reach into Syria,” with cross-border operations only aimed at defending the country from terrorist attacks.
"Türkiye has no eye on the territory of any other country. The only aim for our cross-border operations is to save our homeland from terrorist attacks," he said, referring to strikes targeting the PKK terrorist group's Syrian wing YPG based in northeastern Syria.
Since 2016, Türkiye has staged multiple operations against the PKK/YPG terrorist group, giving it a foothold in areas bordering the frontier.
Ankara says the aim is to oust the PKK/YPG, which is backed by Washington as a bulwark against Daesh.
The PKK has led a decades-long terror campaign inside Türkiye and is also blacklisted as a terrorist outfit by Washington and Brussels.
