ISTANBUL: Turkey should establish ties with the Syrian government “immediately” to accelerate peace efforts, the head of the main Turkish opposition party said on Saturday, calling for a radical policy reversal on the Syrian civil war, which has dragged on for eight years.
“The road between Ankara and Damascus is the shortest route that leads to peace,” said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP).
He was speaking at an international conference on Syria in Istanbul held by the CHP. Assad government officials were absent at the CHP conference after the Turkish Foreign Ministry refused to grant them visas, a party official said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has cut ties to Damascus and has backed the opposition in the Syrian civil war since 2011.
Kilicdaroglu’s remarks come on the heels of a trilateral Syria summit earlier this month in Ankara, where leaders of Turkey, Iran and Russia suggested discussions on a new Syrian constitution would start soon — a key step towards a political solution if realised.
Turkey has been working with Russia and Iran, both backers of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, to de-escalate tension in Syria as part of a so-called Astana process.
A fragile 2018 deal between Ankara and Moscow to avoid a Syrian offensive in the mainly rebel-held province of Idlib and a possible refugee influx to Turkey still lingers in limbo.
Turkey already hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees and is militarily involved in Syria to avert a “terrorist” threat along its borders, referring to groups allegedly linked to insurgents at home.
Turkey should reopen its embassy in Syria “as soon as possible,” former foreign minister Hikmet Cetin said, adding that Ankara should encourage Syrians decide on their own future.
The main opposition’s call for dialogue with Assad coincides with growing calls in the Turkish public to send Syrians back home, amid economic troubles.
Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, hosts an estimated 1 million refugees from Syria, something Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on Saturday referred to as a “major issue that needs to be resolved urgently’’.
Local media reported clashes between locals and Syrians in Istanbul earlier this summer. In face of growing public resentment, Ankara gave undocumented Syrians in Istanbul until October 30 to leave or be sent back to the Turkish city where they were first registered.
The plan was criticised by local and foreign human rights groups and NGOs, who have alleged forced deportations of Syrians, even to conflict zones in Syria.
The government denies the deportation allegations but admits that several thousand unregistered Syrians were sent to refugee camps outside Istanbul.
Imamoglu said he backs the government relocation plan. “We cannot blame Syrians for taking refuge in our country, but we have to establish order so they can receive better services,” he argued.
Some 300,000 Syrians registered elsewhere are estimated to live in Turkey’s financial and cultural capital.
Ankara recently announced some exemptions, including orphans, employers and university students, from the relocation programme, and it remains unclear how the rest will be relocated. — dpa
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