'Normalization' with Assad is the new normal in Turkey - Al-Monitor: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Amberin Zaman

Sultan al-Kanj

Amberin Zaman , Sultan al-Kanj

Aug 16, 2022

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (R) listens on as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a joint press conference at al-Shaab palace in Damascus on Oct. 11, 2010. — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (R) listens on as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a joint press conference at al-Shaab palace in Damascus on Oct. 11, 2010. — LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images

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LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images

Turkey grapples with policy change on Syria

Fehim Tastekin

In Paris, reporting on Turkish politics

Protesters raise yellow flags showing the face of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) -- currently prison in Turkey, and the red-star flag of the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK - Eniya Rizgariya Netewa Kurdistan), during a demonstration calling for his release and condemning recent Turkish strikes on Kurdish areas, in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria on Dec. 6, 2022.

Turkey’s overtures to Assad all about crushing Syrian Kurds’ autonomy

Amberin Zaman

In London, reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

This combination of file photographs created on July 7, 2024, shows Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) in Ankara on May 29, 2023, and Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on July 16, 2023.

Analysis

As Erdogan woos Assad, is Turkey-Syria reconciliation rhetoric or reality?

Amberin Zaman

In London, reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Mazloum Abdi (Kobani), commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), speaks with AFP during an interview in the countryside outside the northwestern Syrian city of Hasakah, in the province of the same name, on January 24, 2019. - Any deal between Syria's Kurds and the Damascus regime should respect the "special status" of Kurdish-led forces who fought the Islamic State (IS) group, Kobani said. The SDF control around a third of Syria after expelling jihadists from a large northeastern swathe of t

Can Syria's Kurds reel in Turkey with profits from American oil deal?

Amberin Zaman

In London, reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture