December 24, 2024
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan meets Leader of new Syrian administration, Ahmed al Sharaa, in Damascus, Syria on December 22, 2024. [Arda Küçükkaya – Anadolu Agency]
Turkiye’s foreign minister has voiced support for Syria’s interim government to take control of the Kurdish-run detainee camps holding former Daesh fighters in the north-east of the country, amid the new Syrian authorities’ growing calls for security centralisation.
In a visit to Syrian capital Damascus over the weekend, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) leader Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani – also known as Ahmed Al-Sharaa – in the first such visit by a nation’s foreign minister for diplomatic talks with the former rebel leader.
Part of those talks reportedly touched on the fate of the prisons holding the detained Daesh fighters in the north-east of Syria, who number around 10,000, as well as thousands of their relatives held in detention camps in eastern Syria. “The Syrian administration told us it is ready to take the necessary initiative to take over these prisoners,” Fidan stated.
Since the territorial defeat of the terror group Daesh in 2019, those captured fighters have been held and guarded by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by the United States and its military forces.
The apparent readiness by HTS and the new Syrian interim government to take control of those facilities comes amid Al-Jolani’s recent stated efforts to bring the various armed groups and factions in Syria under the control of a centralised security command. “We will not allow any weapons to be outside the state, whether from the revolutionary factions or from the factions present in the SDF region,” he announced over the weekend.
The Turkish foreign minister also expressed his government’s support for the new Syrian authorities and their efforts, stating that “we believe the new administration in Damascus will take appropriate steps to ensure Syria’s territorial integrity and political sovereignty. In my meeting with [Al-Jolani], I heard the framework for that vision.”
READ: Syria: HTS leader says Turkiye is Syria’s friend, pledges strategic partnership
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