President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday received Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt at the Presidential Complex in the capital Ankara, Erdoğan’s office said.
Erdoğan and Jumblatt held a closed-door meeting, likely focused on the latest situation in Syria and Lebanon.
The pair were accompanied by Türkiye’s intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalın and Erdoğan’s chief advisor Akif Çağatay Kılıç.
The Druze leader met Syria’s de-facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa just a few days ago, becoming the most important politician from Lebanon to visit Syria since the Assad family’s 54-year rule ended two weeks ago.
Ankara has pledged full support to the new administration in Damascus, including political and military assistance to help revive its neighbor wrecked by more than 13 years of civil war.
The Druze is a religious minority in the Middle East. With its roots in 10th century Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam, the roughly 1 million-strong minority is spread across Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Golan Heights.
Around 25,000 live in the Golan Heights, a rocky plateau seized from Syria by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. Some families are split apart by what is known as the Alpha Line, the start of a buffer zone that separates the Israeli-controlled area of the Golan Heights from Syria.
They navigate their historically Syrian identity while living under Israeli rule. Across the border in Lebanon and Syria, the Druze generally adopted Arab nationalism, including support for the Palestinian cause.
