Syria and Turkey hold talks in Moscow as part of reconciliation efforts

Talks between Turkey and Syria began yesterday in Russia in a bid to push forward with reconciliation efforts.

Experts predicted the discussions, held in the presence of Iranian officials, were the start of lengthy process.

“The process of engagement with Syria has started under the hosting and facilitations of

Russia,” Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in New York.

“Later Iran joined the process. A quadripartite meeting on the level of deputy foreign minister.”

The Moscow meeting is the prelude to talks between the foreign ministers of Turkey, Syria, Iran and Russia.

Russia, which along with Iran supported Syrian President

Bashar Al Assad’s government in the civil war that started in 2011, has been pushing for reconciliation between Damascus and Ankara for months.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected to visit Turkey on Thursday for talks on Syria and Libya, as well as other regional issues, Mr Cavusoglu said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian asked to join the talks between Turkey, Syria and Russia, and Ankara agreed, he said.

Moscow has been pushing for meetings between the Turkish and Syrian foreign ministers and eventually between the countries’ presidents.

In December, Russia hosted discussions between their defence ministers.

Turkey and Syria accuse each other of supporting terrorists who threaten cross-border security. Last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested he was ready to meet Mr Al Assad in talks with Russia.

The talks have symbolic importance and herald a new era between Turkey and Syria after a period of no engagement, Sinan Ulgen, director of Istanbul’s Edam think tank and a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe in Brussels, told The National. “The agenda will essentially be to clarify the conditions for future negotiations and to ultimately proceed with normalisation between the two.”

He said the meeting shows Russia “is an influential player with regards to the politics of Syria”.

The talks were the first step in a “long-term challenge”, the former Turkish diplomat said.