Turkish president waves the olive branch toward his Syrian counterpart

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday announced that Turkiye is "open toward the opportunities to re-establish relations with the Syrian Government and President Bashar Al-Assad." In a gesture of his intention to bury the hatchet with the Syrian government, Erdogan stated, "We would work together to evolve the relations with Syria in the same manner as we have done in the past." Erdogan, speaking to reporters after the Friday prayers, also said, "We cannot have an interest or a goal to intervene in Syria's domestic affairs because we live with the Syrian people as a sisterly nation." Recalling past "family level" meetings with Al-Assad, Erdogan indicated this might happen again. Erdogan appeared to be reciprocating to remarks by the Syrian president, saying that Damascus is open to all initiatives related to the relations between Syria and Turkiye "on the basis of the Syrian state sovereignty on all its territories and combating all forms of terrorism." Al-Assad made the diplomatic overtures duri ng a meeting with a Russian envoy on Thursday. Source: Kuwait News Agency