Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday hailed Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa for his “strong commitment” to fighting terror as the newly-installed interim president made his first official visit to Turkey.
“I would like to express our satisfaction for the strong commitment my brother Ahmed al-Sharaa has shown in the fight against terrorism,” he said at a joint news conference after the pair held talks in Ankara.
Turkey was a key backer of Sharaa’s Islamist-led rebels who ousted Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad on December 8.
It has repeatedly offered operational and military support to help Sharaa’s new government fight against militant groups still operational in war-torn Syria.
Erdogan has repeatedly called for action to root out Islamic State (IS) group militants as well as Kurdish militants based in northeastern Syria whom Turkey sees as a strategic threat over their ties to its domestic nemesis, the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party).
“I told (Sharaa) we are ready to provide the necessary support to Syria in the fight against all kinds of terrorism, whether it be Daesh or the PKK,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.
He also reiterated Turkey’s offer to help run prisons holding IS fighters in northeastern Syria, which are currently run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
“We stand with them in the context of controlling the camps in northeastern Syria,” Erdogan said.
The SDF is seen by many in the West as crucial to keeping the jihadists at bay, but Turkey views it as a terrorist outfit and has threatened military action against it if it does not disband.
“For the safety of our countries and our region, we have no other option than to join forces towards the same goal,” he said.
