By Esra Tekin
ISTANBUL (AA) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday voiced hope that the new, post-Assad administration in Syria continues with an approach that “encompasses and embraces all sectors” of the Syrian people.
Erdogan also said Ankara “wholeheartedly” believes that Türkiye’s “Syrian brothers who won their fight against a bloodstained, tyrannical regime” will be successful, referring to last weekend’s ouster of the Baathist Bashar Assad regime, which had been in power for decades.
Turning to ties between Türkiye and Iraq, Erdogan said that Ankara sees Iraq’s territorial integrity and sovereignty as “very, very important.”
Erdogan said that the countries' joint fight against the terrorist group PKK, which threatens their security and survival, will continue.
Addressing efforts to reach a peace deal between the southern Caucasus neighbors of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Erdogan said Türkiye hopes the “historic opportunity” that came with the liberation of the Karabakh region from occupation last fall will be crowned with an Azerbaijan-Armenia peace deal.
Relations between the former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.
Most of the territory was liberated by Azerbaijan during a war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement opened the door to ongoing normalization and demarcation talks.
Azerbaijan established full sovereignty in Karabakh in September 2023.