In an interview with Turkey’s NTV television Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said a newly appointed interim charge d’affaires had left for Damascus on Friday together with his delegation. (Photo by Murat Gok/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Turkey said Friday its long-closed Damascus embassy would reopen on Saturday, with its new interim envoy and staff already dispatched to Syria earlier in the day.
The new charge d’affairs, Burhan Koroglu, and his staff “left today, the embassy will be operational tomorrow,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told NTV private television.
Earlier this week, Fidan had said Ankara would reopen its embassy when the conditions were right, just days after a lightning rebel offensive overthrew Bashar al-Assad.
Koroglu was appointed to the temporary post on Thursday, state news agency Anadolu said, quoting foreign ministry sources who did not say when he would begin the job.
The Damascus embassy closed on March 26, 2012, a year after Syria’s civil war began, due to the deteriorating security situation amid calls by the Turkish government for Assad to step down.
Koroglu was appointed as Turkey’s ambassador to Nouakchott, Mauritania, exactly a year ago.
It was not immediately clear how long he would hold the post in Damascus.
The number of Syrians in Turkey returning to their country will gradually increase as Syria stabilises, Fidan also said.
The minister added that the elimination of YPG is Turkey’s strategic goal.
The People’s Protection Units (YPG) has been a central element of US-allied forces in a coalition against Islamic State militants.
Turkey says the YPG is a terrorist group, closely tied to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have fought the Turkish state for 40 years.
