President Assad votes in the People’s Assembly elections. I will meet with the Turkish President if the meeting is fruitful and in the interests of both countries.

Dam Press:

President Bashar al-Assad casts his vote during the fourth round of elections for members of the Legislative People’s Assembly at an electoral center in Damascus.

In a statement to reporters, President Bashar al-Assad said: The People’s Assembly institution can place all our hopes on it because it is the highest institution of any country, and if we cannot place our hopes and expectations on it, then it has no other hopes, so naturally there will be expectations.

Speaking from one of the election centers in Damascus, President Bashar al-Assad spoke about relations with Türkiye:
– If the meeting with the Turkish President is fruitful, or if hugging or blaming, or growing a beard is in the interests of both countries, I will hold a meeting, but the problem is not the meeting, but the content of the meeting.
– The meeting proposal may be important because it is a means to an end, but we do not hear what the end is, whether it is to solve the problem or to improve the relationship and return it to normalcy.
– Why did the relationship between the two countries deviate from the normal track? In 13 years, we have not heard any Turkish officials talk about this explicitly.
It is natural that we view positively any move to improve relations with Turkey, and no one would think of creating trouble with a neighboring country.
——This does not mean that our meetings have no rules, it is a means, and means need rules and working references to produce results. If they do not produce results, the relationship may become worse.
Syria insists that meetings with Turkey are necessary at any level, and that they have not stopped but are continuing, and that some mediators have arranged meetings at a security level, which we view positively.
The Turkish Foreign Minister said that there were secret meetings, but for us, there are no secrets in Syria, everything is open, and we will announce when there is a meeting.
We did not see any positive outcomes from the Conference due to a lack of political will.
– What is the purpose of this meeting? Is it to end the root causes of the problem, represented by support for terrorism and withdrawal from Syrian territory? This is the essence of the problem, and if this essence is not discussed, there will be no problem. There will be no results.
We seek fruitful work, we are not opposed to any meeting, what is important is that we achieve results that are in the interests of Syria and Turkey.
– When we talk about a state, relations must be normal, and if we want to achieve that, and that is what we seek in Syria, no matter what happened, can occupation be part of normal relations between states, or can supporting terrorism be part of it? It is impossible.
– If we want to achieve normal relations, we must withdraw from this arena everything that is abnormal…such as occupation, terrorism, violation of international law and lack of respect for national sovereignty.
-When the abnormalities are eliminated, relations will return to normal, without any normalization, coercive measures or government, relations will return to normal and return to the pre-war status quo.
– #Syria looks at the question of normal relations with Turkey in light of its commitments for more than a quarter of a century regarding security on both sides of the border and the fight against terrorism.
Friends know what we are talking about and have known where we stand since the first initiative five years ago.
– In 5 years, we will repeat the same position: “Eliminate the cause and the effect will appear.” This does not require political or media strategies, and friends also support this.
-What we are asking for are Syria’s rights, which is an international law.
——We don’t set conditions, we don’t make demands, but we require. This is different. To achieve results for anything in the world, there must be a corresponding environment. This is what is called a requirement.
– If there is a political relationship, specific requirements are needed to achieve results, without which the process expressed in international law will not succeed.
Such a relationship cannot develop without international law or a frank conversation about the past and the political mistakes that led to the destruction of an entire region and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.