ANKARA (Sputnik) – Turkiye has outlined three priorities in its policy on Syria and will back the opposition, Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources.
The first priority is to properly manage the transition process in the country and build a new Syria, the report said. The second is the fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), both banned in Turkiye. And the third priority is to ensure the return of Syrian refugees from Turkiye to their homeland, the sources said.
Syrian armed groups captured the national capital of Damascus on Sunday. Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali said that he and 18 other ministers had decided to remain in Damascus. Al-Jalali also said he was in contact with the leaders of militant groups that had entered the city. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had stepped down and left Syria after negotiations with some participants of the Syrian conflict.
On Sunday, December 8, a source in the Kremlin told Sputnik that Assad and members of his family had arrived in Moscow, and Russia had granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds. The source also noted that Russian officials were in contact with representatives of the armed Syrian opposition, whose leaders had guaranteed the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic facilities in Syria.
