Only four days after Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s visit to Damascus, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani arrived in Ankara for talks.
No details were released about the content of the talks, but the visit signals rapidly advancing collaboration between the two neighbors.
Turkish-Syrian relations, frozen during the civil war, took a new turn after forces led by incumbent President Ahmed al-Sharaa led a revolution in December 2024 to overthrow the oppressive regime of Bashar Assad, a close ally of Russia. Within one year, Ankara-Damascus ties gained an unprecedented momentum, with deals serving the interests of both countries.
During his visit to Syria on Sunday, Fidan also attended a trilateral summit with al-Sharaa and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who flew to the Syrian capital aboard a plane lent by Türkiye he visited on Saturday.
Syria, like Türkiye, strived to stay away from the U.S.-Israel-Iran war despite their close proximity to the conflict that began on Feb. 28. The conflict appears frozen for now with a cease-fire in place, but the two neighbors remain at risk of spillover of violence.
