Putin meets Assad amid calls to defuse Turkey-Syria tensions

By AFP
July 25, 2024

Moscow is Syria's most important ally - Copyright AFP Hoang Bon

President Vladimir Putin held talks with Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad in Moscow amid calls for Russian mediation to cool tensions between Turkey and Syria.

Wednesday’s talks between the pair — the first since since March 2023 — come after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flagged the potential of a three-way meeting to discuss normalising ties between Ankara and Damascus.

Putin highlighted his concerns over the situation in the Middle East, which he said was “tending to escalate,” in opening remarks between the pair which were aired on state television Thursday.

Moscow is Syria’s most important ally, having effectively saved Assad’s government through its military intervention in 2015 during a civil war.

“I am very interested in your opinion on how the situation in the region as a whole is developing. Unfortunately, it is tending to escalate, we see this. This concerns Syria directly,” Putin said.

Assad said his visit to Moscow was a “very important” opportunity to discuss “events that are taking place today in the world as a whole and in the Eurasian region”, according to a translation into Russian.

Neither mentioned Turkey or the conflict in Syria in the televised remarks.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to say whether a possible meeting between Putin, Erdogan and Assad was discussed in private talks.

“The situation in the region was discussed in a broad context,” he told Russian state media on Thursday.

– ‘Improving relations’ –

Turkey originally aimed to topple Assad’s regime when the Syrian conflict erupted with the violent suppression of peaceful protesters in 2011.

Turkey then backed rebels calling for Assad to be removed and Erdogan has also branded the Syrian leader a “murderer

.”

As Damascus regained territory, however, Erdogan reversed course and has lately prioritised the prevention of what in 2019 he called a “terror corridor” opening up in northern Syria.

Since 2022, top Syrian and Turkish officials have met for Russia-mediated talks.

Erdogan has long said he could reconsider ties with Assad as his government is working to ensure safe and voluntary return of Syrian refugees.

“Now we have come to such a point that as soon as Bashar al-Assad takes a step towards improving relations with Turkey, we will show him the same approach,” Erdogan said at a regional summit in Kazakhstan earlier this month.

In a complex multi-sided conflict, Turkey has launched a string of offensives in Syria since 2016 targeting Kurdish militias, Islamic State group jihadists and forces loyal to Assad.

Pro-Turkish forces in Syria now control two vast strips of territory along the border.

Moscow has complicated, but generally pragmatic and warm relations with NATO member Turkey, with Putin and Erdogan speaking regularly.

Analysts have said any rapprochement between Turkey and Syria is likely to be gradual due to the complex set of thorny issues between the two sides.

Turkey and Russia discuss state of nuclear projects

19 July 2024

The first unit at the Akkuyu nuclear power plant is being prepared for the loading of dummy fuel, and with three more units under construction, the two sides discussed the potential of collaborating on a second nuclear power plant in Turkey.

(Image: Rosatom)

Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev, pictured above, left, and Turkey's Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, above, right, held their talks in Istanbul, focusing on progress with the Akkuyu project.

Likhachev said: "The main efforts are focused on preparing for the launch of the first power unit - we are actively conducting full-scale commissioning work, we are currently preparing the reactor installation for loading fuel simulators. We understand how important it is for the Turkish side to launch the 'first nuclear electricity' into the Turkish energy system as soon as possible."

Bayraktar said: "We discussed the current status of the Akkuyu NPP site and the roadmap for commissioning the first power unit of the plant. We are working intensively to commission the first power unit as soon as possible. At the same time, the construction of the other three power units is ongoing."

According to a statement from Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear corporation, the two also discussed the possibility of Rosatom also being commissioned to build Turkey's proposed second nuclear power plant, in Sinop.

Akkuyu, in the southern Mersin province, is Turkey's first nuclear power plant. Rosatom is building four VVER-1200 reactors, under a so-called BOO (build-own-operate) model. According to the terms of the 2010 Intergovernmental Agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Turkey, the commissioning of the first power unit of the nuclear power plant must take place within seven years from receipt of all permits for the construction of the unit.

The licence for the construction of the first unit was issued in 2018, with construction work beginning that year. Nuclear fuel was delivered to the site in April 2023. Turkey's Nuclear Regulatory Agency issued permission for the first unit to be commissioned in December, and in February it was announced that the reactor compartment had been prepared for controlled assembly of the reactor - and the generator stator had also been installed in its pre-design position.

The aim is for unit 1 to begin supplying Turkey's energy system in 2025. When the 4800 MWe plant is completed it is expected to meet about 10% of Turkey's electricity needs, with the aim that all four units will be operational by the end of 2028.

In March, Bayraktar was reported to have said that Turkey was talking to Russia and South Korea about the Sinop plant and was also in talks with China about plans for a third nuclear power plant, in the Thrace region in the country's northwest. He was also quoted as saying that despite there being some issues relating to sanctions to overcome they remained on track for all units being online by 2028.

Last week, according to the Tass news agency, Likhachev told Rossiya-1 television that sanctions had hampered its "legal entities, our banks, causing many problems" but said that, nonetheless, construction continued, adding "the dogs bark, but the caravan goes on".

Researched and written by World Nuclear News