ISTANBUL (AP) — High-ranking Turkish officials, including the country’s foreign minister, defense minister, and intelligence chief, made an unexpected trip to Damascus on Thursday, just days after Syria’s interim government struck a deal to incorporate a U.S.-backed Kurdish-led armed group into its national army.
The agreement, which integrates the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) into the Syrian military, follows intense clashes last week between government security forces and factions loyal to former Syrian leader Bashar Assad.
Monitoring groups report that the recent violence in Syria’s coastal regions has claimed hundreds of civilian lives, with many victims belonging to the Alawite minority, the sect to which Assad is affiliated.
During the visit, Syria’s interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former opposition leader, met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Defense Minister Yasar Guler, and National Intelligence Organization head Ibrahim Kalin. They were joined by Turkey’s ambassador to Syria, Burhan Koroglu.
According to Turkey’s DHA news agency, a senior Turkish Defense Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that Ankara seeks to assess the implications of the new agreement on the ground.
“Our stance remains unchanged regarding the elimination of terrorist threats in Syria, the disarmament of armed groups, and the removal of foreign fighters,” the official emphasized.
Turkey considers the SDF and its military wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), as terrorist organizations due to their affiliation with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
While the Turkish delegation was en route to Damascus, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended a ceremony honoring former Syrian fighter pilot Ragheed al-Tatari, who had been imprisoned in Syria for 43 years.
At the event, hosted by a foundation connected to Turkey’s religious authority, Erdogan presented al-Tatari with an award for his «benevolence and resilience.» The former pilot had been jailed under both Hafez al-Assad and Bashar al-Assad’s regimes since 1981.
The reasons for al-Tatari’s imprisonment remain disputed, with some accounts suggesting he refused orders to bomb Hama, while others claim he failed to report a pilot’s attempted defection.
Over four decades, he was transferred among Syria’s most notorious prisons, including Palmyra and Sednaya, both infamous for housing political detainees. His incarceration, labeled by human rights organizations as one of Syria’s longest for a political prisoner, came to an end in December when opposition forces secured his release.
Erdogan praised al-Tatari in his speech, calling him “a courageous Syrian pilot who followed his conscience.”
