Message from Erdoğan on Syria: ‘There is no reason not to establish relations’

President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan answered questions from journalists following Friday prayers.

MEETING WITH BAHÇELİ

Highlights from Erdoğan’s statements are as follows:

''As an important representative of the People's Alliance, we have been working with Devlet Bey for a long time. We have meetings with Devlet Bey. And we are continuing these meetings without interruption, and we will continue to do so. We do not intend to give any opportunity for abuse here. Such a thing is out of the question. We evaluated what is happening in our country's political development and what measures we need to take with Devlet Bey. We make these evaluations for about an hour in each of our meetings.

NORMALIZATION PROCESS WITH SYRIA

There is no reason not to re-establish diplomatic relations between Turkey and Syria. Just as we were together in the past, we can act together in the same way again. And we cannot have any concern about interfering in Syria's internal affairs. The Syrian people are a community with whom we have lived together as brotherly peoples.

If we kept our relations with Syria very, very vibrant in the past, you know that we even held meetings with Mr. Assad, including family meetings. It is absolutely impossible to say that it will not happen tomorrow; it will happen again.''