ISTANBUL, August 3 Deputy Foreign Minister of Turkey Nuh Yilmaz held consultations with the special representative of the Russian President for Syria, Alexander Lavrentyev, the Turkish department reported.
«Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Nuh Yilmaz met with the special representative of the Russian President for Syria, Alexander Lavrentyev. During the meeting… consultations were held on Syria,» the department reported.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad can hold talks in a third country, Ankara wants Damascus to conduct a dialogue with the Syrian opposition, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said earlier.
The first meeting between Erdogan and Assad in more than 10 years may take place during August at the border checkpoint, the Türkiye newspaper previously reported. The newspaper claimed that the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, discussed in Ankara with his Turkish colleague Ibrahim Kalin the date and place of the meeting between the leaders of Turkey and Syria.
Russia, like other countries, is interested in improving relations between Turkey and Syria, said Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov, answering the question of whether Moscow is preparing for a meeting between Erdogan and Assad. Assad said on July 15 that he is ready for a meeting with his Turkish counterpart if it meets Syrian national interests. Earlier, Erdogan said that Fidan and his colleagues are defining a plan to normalize relations between Ankara and Damascus and implement negotiations between the leaders of Turkey and Syria. The Turkish President said that Fidan is authorized to organize his meeting with Assad, possibly in a third country. The Syrian Foreign Ministry responded by stating that the normalization of relations between Syria and Turkey should be based on a return to the situation that existed before 2011.