Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has voiced support for the jihadist insurgency in Syria, urging the Islamists to continue their march to Damascus, various media outlets reported on Friday.
Militant forces in Syria led by the group Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, last week launched a surprise assault from their base in Idlib, targeting the province of Aleppo.
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Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham, which translates as “Organization for the Liberation of the Levant” and is commonly known as HTS, is considered a terrorist organization by Syria, Russia, Iran, the US, and other countries. Despite Türkiye’s apparent support for HTS, it also officially classes it as a terrorist group.
Over the past week, the militants have driven back government forces and captured significant chunks of territory in Aleppo and Idlib, and on Thursday surrounded the key city of Hama.
According to media reports on Friday, thousands of people are fleeing Syria’s third-largest city of Homs, amid reports that the militants continue to advance. Homs is the next city south on the road from Aleppo to Damascus. HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani has reportedly warned the residents of Homs: “your time has come.”
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Addressing key regional issues, Erdogan said on Friday that he hopes the jihadists in Syria will continue to move forward without any problems.
“Idlib, Hama, Homs, and the target, of course, is Damascus. The opposition’s march continues,” the Turkish president was quoted as telling reporters in Istanbul. “Our wish is that this march in Syria continues without accidents or disasters,” he added.
Ankara made a call to Damascus “to determine the future of Syria together,” according to Erdogan, but “did not receive a positive response.”
While Erdogan has expressed his commitment to the territorial integrity of Syria, he also said that the “legitimate opposition” needs to be heard.
This week, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan appeared to blame the government in Damascus for the resumption of the jihadist onslaught, claiming the country’s “interconnected problems” have remained unresolved for more than 13 years.
Türkiye, which borders militant-controlled Idlib, has objected to military action in the Syrian province. Ankara has argued that hostilities would cause a mass exodus of refugees to flood across the border, which it was not prepared to accept. Instead, a shaky truce was negotiated in 2020.