Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM Party said it will send a delegation to meet Abdullah Ocalan, head of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), in jail on Wednesday for a second time as part of a political effort to end a decades-long conflict.
Turkey has emerged as one of the most influential power brokers in Syria after rebels toppled Bashar al-Assad last month, ending his family's brutal five-decade rule.
No country has as much to gain from a stable Syria as Turkey, and few have as much to lose if it implodes. Turkey is home to more than 3m Syrian refugees, and wants Syria to be safe enough for many to return.
As it became increasingly clear that Syrians were not imminently leaving Turkey, the Turkish government formalized the Temporary Protection Regulation in 2014. It allowed Syrian nationals access to the Turkish education and health care systems and laid the groundwork for them to pursue employment if they could secure work permits.
The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad has led to a face-off between Turkey and Israel in Syria, where both countries have deployed forces. Relations between Turkey and the Jewish state were already strained over the Gaza war,
Hundreds of Syrian refugees in Turkey are making a return to Syria every day, according to the Turkish Interior Ministry. But the majority are waiting to see how the new leadership takes shape.
ISTANBUL - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Friday that the new Syrian administration should be given an opportunity to address the presence of Kurdish militants in the country, and reiterated that the Turkish military would act if it did not.
The new administration’s first visit to Ankara comes amid an intensifying struggle for the partition of Syria between the states behind the overthrow of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by jihadists led by the al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Israel is preparing for a possible confrontation with Turkey over Ankara's support for various factions in Syria, according to a recent report by the
Syria turned in to a literal free-for-all, almost immediately after the fall of Assad regime which essentially ended the Syria civil war, with Israel, Turkey, and the US moving swiftly to achieve their respective goals in the region.
Turkey is allowing one adult per Syrian family to return after visiting their homeland, but experts warn that easing restrictions may not lead to significant refugee returns amid ongoing uncertainties in Syria.
Turkey was mentioned more than 10 times in the report, a signal of Israel’s fear that rhetoric by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against Israel may transform into actions.