Turkey downplays Assad regime normalisation after Syrian opposition anger

Turkey will not normalise relations with the Syrian regime amid objections from the Syrian opposition, according to Ankara's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

It comes amid mass protests across northwest Syria on Monday denouncing a potential Turkish rapprochement with the Syrian regime after signs of a thaw between Ankara and Damascus.

Turkey has been one of the main backers of the Syrian opposition and hosts nearly four million Syrian refugees, most fleeing the Assad regime's brutal assaults on rebel areas.

"We won't have a normalisation process or discussions with (the Syrian regime) amid objections from the Syrian opposition. Turkey is also a guarantor country for the opposition," Cavusoglu told reporters on Tuesday.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and his Turkish and Syrian counterparts, Hulusi Akar and Ali Mahmoud Abbas, met last week for the first time since the conflict in Syria began in 2011.

The meeting was intended to discuss "ways to resolve the Syrian crisis", according to Moscow, sparking concern among Syrians of a normalisation in ties between Ankara and Damascus.

The Turkish foreign minister, who says he is due to meet Syrian opposition representatives on Tuesday, says talks with the regime would be conducted first on a ministerial level and that it was premature to plan a "presidential-level" discussion.

Upcoming talks between Cavusoglu and his Syrian and Russian counterparts are currently being organised, according to the minister.

Syrian civilians have protested against any potential Turkish reconciliation with the regime across the northwestern provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, in areas under the control of the Syrian opposition, The New Arab’s Arabic-language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

"We protested to take a stand.. and deliver a message to Turkish officials… that the people have had their say… no to reconciliation with the murderer of our children, and no to normalising relations with the criminal regime," activist Mahmoud Abu al-Majd told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

Syria erupted in anti-government protests in 2011, which were brutally suppressed by the Assad regime. Around 500,000 people have been killed since then, mostly civilians from regime bombing. 

Turkey has already been criticised for returning Syrian refugees to the country, and there are fears of a regime takeover of Syrian opposition areas if Ankara and Damascus were to normalise ties.

"We were displaced from our homes and left our money and lands as a refusal to remain under his criminal control. He [President Bashar al-Assad] demolished the country, killed thousands of civilians and children, and arrested thousands as well," activist Ibrahim Al-Darwish told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

"We came here to speak out, not to reconcile with this criminal regime."

Demonstrators took to the city of Idlib and the Bab Al-Hawa square near the city of Sarmada in the Idlib province, and the city of Atarib in the western Aleppo province as they called for the regime’s downfall.

It follows mass protests by hundreds of Syrians last Friday in Al-Bab about the possible reconciliation.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who in recent years repeatedly called Assad an "assassin", spoke in November of a "possible" meeting with his Syrian counterpart, which drew widespread controversy.

Turkey has for more than a decade been the most important political and military backer of the Syrian opposition.