As Assad softens tone, can Turkey and Syria normalize relations?
As news of normalization between Turkey and Syria and a meeting between the Turkish president and his Syrian counterpart abound, many strategic and technical questions need to be addressed.
As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been openly seeking dialogue with Damascus, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who used to demand the withdrawal of Turkish troops from his country before any direct talks could even begin, appears to have softened his tone.
Rapprochement between Ankara and Damascus is urgent amid geopolitical risks within Syria, especially Syrian Kurdish groups’ efforts to consolidate their de facto autonomy in the northeast, and the broader region, such as the war in the Gaza Strip and escalating tensions between Israel and Iran-backed groups in Lebanon and Yemen.
Experts told Al-Monitor that among several pressing issues that will shape Turkey-Syria normalization talks, the trickiest will be the future of Turkish troops in Syria, Turkey-backed Syrian opposition groups and Syrian migrants in Turkey.
The disarming of groups such as the Idlib-based jihadists Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in the northwest and the future of the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which Ankara deems a top national security threat, in the northeast stand out as the most challenging issues between the two capitals.
