Turkish diplomats deny reports of upcoming Assad-Erdogan normalisation meeting

Turkish diplomatic sources on Monday denied reports that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would meet with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad.

Quoting CNN-Turk, the New Arab’s Arabic-language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed said that the diplomatic sources denied reports of a potential meeting between Assad and Erdogan without giving further details.

The Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah had earlier reported that a "much-anticipated" meeting between Assad and Erdogan may take place in Moscow in August.

It said that Russian President Vladimir Putin, a key backer of Assad, would mediate the meeting, with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani possibly attending.

The Assad regime’s other main backer, Iran, would not be invited, the newspaper said.

Erdogan has recently declared his willingness to normalise ties with the Assad regime which were broken off in 2011, when regime forces brutally suppressed peaceful protests against Assad’s rule, sparking the Syrian conflict.

On 7 July, he said he would be willing to receive Assad "at any moment" in Turkey.

However, these overtures were received coldly by the regime, which demanded the withdrawal of all Turkish forces from Syria before any meeting took place.

The regime however said that security meetings would be held with Turkey soon.

Turkey has backed Syrian rebel forces in the conflict which broke out in 2011, while maintaining observation posts around rebel-held Idlib province.

It has also waged three campaigns against Kurdish forces and the Islamic State militant group, setting up three buffer zones in northern Syria in areas previously held by IS and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

In addition, Turkey hosts around 3.5 million refugees from the Syrian conflict but these have increasingly been the target of violent xenophobia, with anti-Syrian riots breaking out in the city of Kayseri earlier this month.

The Turkish government has also deported tens of thousands of Syrian refugees to northern Syria in recent years.