Syrians living in Turkey push a cart loaded with their furniture at the Cilvegozu border crossing gate in Reyhanli. AFP
Nato member Turkey backed the Syrian rebels who toppled President Bashar Al-Assad last weekend, ending a 13-year civil war, Reuters reported.
According to The Guardian, Turkey was holding considerable sway in the northwest, financing armed groups there and maintaining a working relationship with Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), which spearheaded the offensive that toppled Al-Assad.
“In their first statement, the new administration that toppled Assad announced that it would respect all government institutions, the United Nations and other international organisations,” Guler told reporters in Ankara in comments authorized for publication on Sunday.
“We think that we need to see what the new administration will do and to give them a chance,” he added.
When asked whether Turkey was considering military cooperation with the new Syrian government, Guler said Ankara already had military cooperation and training agreements with many countries.
“[Turkey] is ready to provide the necessary support if the new administration requests it,” he stated.
Meanwhile, more than 7,600 Syrian migrants crossed the Turkish border to return home in the five days after Al-Assad's fall, Turkey's interior minister said Sunday.
In a statement on X, Minister of Interior Ali Yerlikaya listed the total number of Syrians "who returned voluntarily from Turkey" each day between December 9 and 13, with the five-day figure totalling 7,621 migrants.
Turkey is home to nearly three million refugees who fled Syria after the start of the civil war in 2011, with the fall of Al-Assad raising hopes many would return home.
Early on Monday, AFP correspondents saw hundreds of refugees massing at the Cilvegozu border crossing some 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city, with interior ministry figures showing 1,259 crossed that day.
Another 1,669 crossed on Tuesday, 1,293 on Wednesday, 1,553 on Thursday, and 1,847 on Friday, Yerlikaya said.
Within 48 hours of Al-Assad's fall, Turkey had increased its daily crossing capacity from 3,000 to 15,000-20,000, Yerlikaya said earlier this week.
Turkey shares a 900-kilometre (560-mile) border with Syria with five operational crossings and has said it would open a sixth in the far west to "ease the traffic."
With anti-Syrian sentiment running high within Turkish society, Ankara is keen to see as many refugees as possible return to their homeland.
Around 1.24 million — some 42 percent — of them hail from the Aleppo region, the interior ministry said.
Turkey announced it had reopened its embassy in Damascus, nearly a week after the Islamist-led rebels toppled Al-Assad’s regime, and 12 years after the Turkish diplomatic mission was closed early in Syria’s civil war.
In a joint statement after the meeting in Jordan, diplomats from the US, Turkey, the EU, and Arab countries “affirmed the full support to the Syrian people at this critical point in their history to build a more hopeful, secure and peaceful future.”
They called for a Syrian-led transition to “produce an inclusive, non-sectarian and representative government formed through a transparent process,” with respect for human rights.
Short link: