Erdoğan: Meeting with Syrian President Possible

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was responding to the questions on November 23, 2022 about whether he would meet in person with the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as he did with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Qatar over the weekend.

Erdoğan did not give details about when he will have his second meeting with el-Sisi.

Türkiye had strained ties with both Egypt and Syria since the early 2010. It did support the terrorist groups in Syria after the unrest in the country. Erdoğan was also the loudest critic of el-Sisi rule in Egypt as he firmly denounced the military coup against the country’s first democratically elected President, Mohammed Morsi.

Erdoğan may shake hands with the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for high-level diplomatic talks before the 2023 elections, two journalists from the daily Hürriyet reported. 

A possible meeting with al-Assad has come to force following Erdoğan’s meeting with el-Sisi in Qatar, where he was for the world cup ceremonies.