Turkey appoints ambassador to Syria after 13-year absence

Nuh Yilmaz will head Turkish embassy in Damascus

Nuh Yilmaz, then Turkey's deputy foreign minister, arrives at the Europa Building in Brussels in March, for a conference on supporting Syria's post-Assad transition. AFP

Turkey has appointed a new ambassador to Damascus for the first time in 13 years as it reinforces its role as one of Syria's main backers in the post-Assad era.

Nuh Yilmaz, a former deputy foreign minister, confirmed that his appointment had been approved by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey “will strive to develop” Ankara-Damascus relations to contribute to “good neighbourliness and the peace and stability of our region”, he said in a statement posted on X.

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Turkey was among the first countries to reopen its embassy in Damascus following the overthrow of president Bashar Al Assad last year, and appointed Burhan Koroglu, an Arabic speaker and former ambassador to Mauritania, as charge d’affaires.

Mr Yilmaz replaces Mr Koroglu to become Turkey’s first full ambassador to Damascus since relations were severed in 2012 over the Assad regime's brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.

The Turkish flag is raised at Turkey's embassy in Damascus in December 2024 following the overthrow of Bashar Al Assad. Anadolu via AFP

US Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack, who is also Washington’s ambassador to Ankara, congratulated Mr Yilmaz on his appointment. “Ambassador Yilmaz’s deep experience and strategic vision make him exceptionally well-suited to help shape a new era of Turkish partnership with the emerging Syria,” he wrote in a post on X.

A close confidant of Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Mr Yilmaz has played a key role in Turkey’s Middle East policy for years, and has visited Damascus frequently since the fall of the Assad regime. He presents himself as a serious diplomat focused on securing Turkey’s national interests and good relations with allies and neighbours. He previously served as chief adviser to Mr Fidan, and worked alongside him at Turkey's intelligence organisation.

Syria has yet to appoint a new ambassador to its embassy in Ankara, although officials from Damascus have been visiting Turkey frequently over the past year.

Over the past 11 months, Turkey has strengthened its role as one of the major supporters of President Ahmad Al Shara's new government in Damascus. Turkey is training members of Syria’s military and security forces, and is eyeing a major role for Turkish construction companies in the rebuilding the country after nearly 14 years of conflict.

Turkey's main concerns in Syria revolve around eliminating what it sees as a major national security threat from Kurdish militias in the country’s north-east. Political observers in Turkey see stagnation in a process designed to integrate the militias into a Damascus-controlled army as a threat to the peace process Ankara is pushing forward with Kurdish militants across the region.

Turkey is also keen to encourage the return home of millions of Syrians who fled to the country during the war. The number of Syrians registered in Turkey peaked at more than 3.7 million in 2021, although an unknown additional number were also living undocumented in the country.

Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced this month that 550,000 Syrians had returned home from Turkey since the Assad regime's fall. That brought the total who had left the country since 2016 – when Ankara began encouraging returns – to 1.29 million.