Report: Erdoğana and Assad might meet in Uzbekistan

Report: Erdoğana and Assad might meet in Uzbekistan
August 22, 2022, 6:53 pm

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Aug. 12, 2020. (AFP)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad will potentially meet on the sidelines of the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit (SCO) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Iran’s semi-official agency Tasnim reported.

The 2022 annual summit of the SCO Heads of State Council will be held on September 15-16 in the central Asian country.

The Iranian news outlet underlined that the meeting would take place on the condition of the meeting between the Turkish delegation and Al-Assad.

After holding a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi earlier this month, Erdoğan had announced that he would participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit. Erdoğan had said that Putin had asked him to do so.

“The Shangai Organization Summit will be held in Uzbekistan in September. In our meeting, Putin also requested of me, and I will hopefully attend the meeting there,” Erdoğan had said.

(L) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (R) Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad

Tasnim reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin had asked Al-Assad to attend the meeting in Shanghai, meaning it is likely that a meeting between the Syrian president and his Turkish counterpart will take place.

Former Turkish Foreign Minister and a senior adviser to Victory Party, Prof. Dr. Şükrü Sina Gürel, said that both Erdoğan and Assad had been invited to the summit and that the two might hold a meeting.

Turkish media: Erdogan and Assad may hold Putin-brokered talks

“It turns out Assad has been also invited by Putin. Therefore, both Erdoğan and Assad -- heading the legitimate Syrian administration -- have been invited. This is a hopeful development. They might come together,” Gürel told KRT TV.

The head of the Patriotic Party (Vatan Partisi), Dogu Perincek, revealed earlier in the day that his party was preparing a delegation to travel to Syria, pointing out that several Turkish officials will accompany him on his trip to Damascus.

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