Turkey appoints envoy to Damascus after 12-year diplomatic freeze

Ankara follows Doha to announce the reopening of its embassy in Syria

Turkey has appointed an interim charge d'affaires to Syria as it reopens its embassy in Damascus. AFP

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Turkey has appointed an interim charge d'affaires to run its embassy in the Syrian capital, two senior Turkish government officials have confirmed to The National, ending a 12-year diplomatic freeze between the neighbouring countries.

The appointment comes only hours after Turkey's intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin visited Damascus, the first foreign senior official to do so in more than a decade.

Burhan Koroglu, currently Turkey's ambassador in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, will take the charge d'affaires position, Turkish news agency Anadolu said, without stating when he will arrive in Damascus.

“Our embassy in Damascus will be opened as soon as possible,” one of the officials said, on condition of anonymity.

Turkey closed its embassy in Syria in 2012, a year after the civil war broke out and the crackdown by the Syrian government on protests. Istanbul has supported the rebel groups and had called for president Bashar Al Assad to step down.

“Turkey reactivated the Damascus embassy by appointing a temporary chargé d’affaires,” a Turkish foreign ministry official said in written remarks provided to The National. “Diplomatic relations, which had not been technically cut off, will continue where they left off.”

Bashar Al Assad welcoming Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at Damascus airport in January 2011. AFP

Syrian militant group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham's political affairs department said on Thursday that it had received a “direct promise” from Turkey that it would reopen its embassy in Damascus. Qatar said on Wednesday that it would re-open its diplomatic mission to improve co-ordination and aid deliveries.

Mr Kalin, who is close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met the Hayat Tahrir leader Ahmad Al Shara in Damascus. The rebel group commander, formerly known as Abu Mohammed Al Jawlani, was pictured driving around in an estate car alongside Mr Kalin amid a vast crowd of security guards and onlookers.

The Turkish intelligence chief’s visit was the first public tour in Damascus of a foreign government official since Mr Al Assad’s regime fell to rebel forces on Sunday. Turkey appears to be trying to leverage years of supporting Syria's opposition forces.

“The primary function of the Turkish embassy will be serving as a communication hub with all Syrian parties during this transition period,” said Mustafa Caner, a foreign policy researcher at the Seta think tank, which is close to the Turkish government. Turkey would then support “drafting the new constitution and building the new political system”, he told The National.

Qatar and Turkey are close military, political and economic allies and it is unsurprising that they are the first two countries to announce the reopening of their embassies.

“Turkey has a very positive dialogue with Gulf countries, especially Qatar – both have been consistent supporters of the opposition,” said Mr Caner. There was “probably” some level of co-ordination between the two states over the embassy reopenings, he added. “They probably informed each other.”

Turkey directly backs some of Syria’s rebels, who for years have provided a buffer between the Turkish border and Kurdish militias that Ankara considers terrorist organisations. Those rebels, known as the Syrian National Army, are waging an offensive against US-backed Kurdish militias in north-east Syria.

The Turkish government still officially considers HTS a terrorist group, although Mr Caner said that “political realities in the field”, such as Mr Kalin meeting Mr Al Shara in Damascus, showed that the organisation was changing.

Mr Koroglu, the new envoy in Damascus, is an academic focusing on Middle Eastern and Islamic studies. He speaks Arabic and English, according to an official embassy biography, and studied in Jordan before taking up research positions in Turkey and Qatar. He was appointed ambassador to Mauritania in December 2023.

His public feed on X includes a retweet of Mr Erdogan’s criticism of Mr Al Assad for failing to engage in dialogue, and a eulogy to the assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.