![“Could Syria carry Assad in the long-term? Certainly not,” said Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. “The United States knows and Russia knows that Assad does not appear to be someone who can bring [the Syrian people] together.” AFP photo](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.rudaw.net%2Fs3%2Frudaw.net%2FContentFiles%2F240018Image1.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has stressed that his country’s stance on the Assad regime has not changed amid speculation that it might following that regimes attacks on Kurdish forces in Syria which Ankara staunchly opposes.
“Turkey will be more active in the Syria issue in the coming six months as a regional player. This means not allowing Syria to be divided on any ethnic base, for Turkey this is crucial,” Yilidrim told reporters in Istanbul on Saturday.
Regime warplanes bombed the Syrian Kurdish majority city of Hasakah for the first time on Thursday amid clashes between Kurdish Asayish and regime forces there. This attack comes after Turkey began repairing its ties with Russia, which backs Assad in Syria, and even promising to coordinate further on the future of Syria.
Syrian Kurds fear Turkey will acquiesce to Assad holding onto power longer if he turns his attention to crushing Kurdish autonomy in Syria’s northeast. An advisor to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Nasser Haj Mansour, told AP that, “There will be concessions on the Kurdish question,” before adding that, “I do not know where this will lead.”
However Yildirim stressed that Turkey will never accept a future for the Assad regime.
“Could Syria carry Assad in the long-term? Certainly not,” he said. “The United States knows and Russia knows that Assad does not appear to be someone who can bring [the Syrian people] together.”
“There may be talks [with Assad] for the transition,” Yildirim added. “A transition may be facilitated. But we believe that there should be no [Kurdish forces], Daesh [Islamic State/ISIS] or Assad in Syria’s future.”
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also said on Friday that Assad “should leave as soon as possible. There can’t be a real transition with Assad, but the Russians think otherwise. We asked Russia once again to focus on ISIS and terrorist organizations and to resume the talks in Geneva.”
“We support political transition, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the state. We need to eradicate the terrorist organizations on the ground. Our stance on Assad will not change because our approach is realistic and not personal; he killed more than 600,000 people.”
