- The prospect of fence-mending with Damascus continues to excite Turkey’s political scene after Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu revealed last week that he had spoken briefly with his Syrian counterpart during an international gathering in Belgrade in October and stressed the need to reconcile Syria’s opposition and government.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin had long sought to convince Erdogan to talk to Assad, but the Turkish president had agreed only to bilateral contacts between intelligence officials.
- As part of the Astana platform designed to reconcile Assad’s government and the opposition, Turkey was able to bring armed factions not designated as terrorist groups by the UN into the process and act as their guarantor.
<span>Turkey grapples with policy change on Syria </span>
