ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Syrian delegation is set to visit neighboring Turkey on Wednesday in its first official visit to the country since Islamist-led rebels toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the foreign minister announced. “We will represent the new Syria tomorrow in the first official visit to the Republic of Turkey, which has not abandoned the Syrian people for 14 years,” Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani said in a post on X. A coalition of rebel groups spearheaded by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted Assad in a blistering offensive last month, forming a transitional government headed by Ahmad al-Sharaa. Turkey ended diplomatic relations with Assad after his regime cracked down on peaceful protesters in 2011. Erdogan labeled the then-Syrian president as a dictator. Ankara has supported rebel forces throughout the Syrian civil war. It has also launched repeated incursions into Syrian territory, most notably against the Kurds in Afrin in 2018, and continues to occupy large swathes of the country’s north. On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the fall of Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad was not only a victory for Syrians but also for Turkey. Millions of Syrians who fled the civil war live in Turkey, and Ankara has expressed optimism about their return since the fall of Assad. Turkey, which appears to have strong leverage with the new government in Damascus, has expressed its readiness to provide military and logistical assistance to the new administration.
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