Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will discuss initiatives to reconcile the so-called Syrian opposition and President Bashar al-Assad in Syria during an upcoming cabinet meeting on Monday. This was reported by the pro-government Turkish newspaper Sabah.
According to the newspaper, these initiatives are also supported by Devlet Bahceli, chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (NMP), which is considered President Tayyip Erdogan's partner in the ruling coalition.
In March 2011, a standoff broke out in Syria between government forces and the armed opposition demanding al-Assad's resignation as president. The conflict escalated due to political and military support of the opposition from abroad, primarily from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, the US and several EU countries.
In 2014, militants from terrorist organizations, including the Islamic State (IS; banned in Russia), joined the fight against government forces. By mid-2015, IS controlled about 70% of the country. However, by 2018, the Syrian military, supported by the Russian air force, managed to regain control of most of the country (over 90%).
There were 470,000 victims of the conflict, and the number of refugees by the spring of 2018 was over 5.6 million people. Damage from the war in Syria is estimated at $400 billion.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
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Based on materials from TASS