President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told journalists on Wednesday that he would soon visit the Syrian capital Damascus.
He said preparations were underway for the landmark visit, but the date had yet to be determined. It will be the first such visit by Erdoğan since revolutionary forces led by Ahmed al-Sharaa ousted the Baathist regime in 2024.
Türkiye is among the biggest supporters of the new administration in Damascus and cooperates with it in nearly every field from defense to education as the post-Baathist country strives to erase the traces of years of civil war.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and the head of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) were among the first high-ranking officials to visit Syria after the revolution, and since then, numerous official visits have been held between the two countries, along with an exchange of ambassadors in the post-war era.
Syria was also on the agenda of Erdoğan’s address to lawmakers of his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) earlier on Wednesday. He recalled the capture of Mihraç Ural, a senior terrorist originating from southern Türkiye, who was among the perpetrators of a notorious massacre in Syria’s Banyas in 2013 that targeted civilians opposing the Baathist regime.
Syrian authorities have captured Ural, also a suspect in the 2013 Reyhanlı bombings that killed 53 people in southern Türkiye, earlier this month. Erdoğan said on Wednesday that the capture was the work of “secret heroes” of MIT and Syrian intelligence. According to earlier media reports, Syria's General Intelligence Directorate detained Ural as he attempted to escape across the border. Ural fled Türkiye for Syria in 1982 after being imprisoned over his involvement in illegal organizational activities. Following the outbreak of the Arab Spring and anti-government protests in Syria, Ural reactivated the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Sanjak of Iskenderun-Syrian Resistance, a sectarian-based militant organization, in early 2012.
Erdoğan told the party meeting that he raised the voice of the oppressed when the Banyas massacre happened, “when the cries of children were everywhere.”
“When the people of Syria wondered when they would be spared, we told them that Allah was with them and those who have been patient would achieve victory,” quoting an Arabic saying that is also believed to be a hadith by the Prophet Muhammad.
Erdoğan stressed that he was speaking out against the crimes of the Baathist regime at a time when "those who lecture Türkiye, both at home and abroad, on democracy, the rule of law and human rights had fallen silent.”
“We wholeheartedly believe, as the late (poet) Sezai Karakoç so eloquently put it, that ‘victory grows with every defeat.’ In those days, when oppression, cruelty and barbarism surrounded us, we said, ‘Whatever they do is in vain; there is a decree from the heavens,” he said, quoting Karakoç again, from a poem Erdoğan often invokes in his speeches.
“Allah did not let us down before either our nation or the oppressed people of Syria. Almighty Allah granted our Syrian brothers and sisters a magnificent victory,” he said.
Erdoğan said the Syrian people had achieved an extraordinary victory on Dec. 8, 2024, one that would be remembered for years to come and passed down from generation to generation, from heart to heart. He said that, following years of oppression, they were witnessing the gradual return of peace, tranquility and stability to Syria despite Israel’s severe provocations. Under the resolute leadership of al-Sharaa, he added, the Syrian people were building their common future in unity and solidarity.
“We believe that a brand-new chapter will open in Syria once the integration process in the north is completed,” Erdoğan said. “As Türkiye, we will continue to stand by Syria at every stage where our support is needed, and we are striving to fulfill our responsibilities in this process to ensure the welfare and peace of the Syrian people.”
Erdoğan also pointed to significant developments in Syria that, he said, should serve as a lesson, particularly for tyrants and murderers. Stressing that the cries for justice of the oppressed had not gone unanswered and that justice, however slowly, was being served, Erdoğan continued: “Wherever they flee, the criminals who take pleasure in killing children are being tracked down in the lairs where they hide and eliminated one by one. The time has come to hold to account those who threaten Türkiye, those who spilled the blood of 248 innocent people in Banyas and 53 of our citizens in Reyhanlı, and those vile individuals who struck heroic poses over the bodies of Syrian children,” he said.
“My brothers and sisters, have no doubt: The time will come for others to answer for their actions, too. We are deeply pleased that justice will ultimately be served, even if belatedly and even at the cost of the lives of hundreds of thousands of oppressed Syrians,” he added.