Kremlin asks Turkey to explain Erdogan’s remark about toppling Assad

Turkey, which has always backed the opposition that aims to oust Assad, caused a strain in its new rapprochement with Moscow when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently suggested his country’s military actions in Syria aims to topple the Syrian government.

This drew surprise from Russian Federation, which asked for clarification of the remarks.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists he hoped that “clarification will come shortly from our Turkish partners”.

The ISIS-affiliated Amaq News Agency reports that the jihadist group abducted two Turkish soldiers Tuesday near the al-Dana village northwest of al-Bab in northern Syria.

“That will be a good topic to clarify the intentions”, he said answering a question from a TASS correspondent.

Lavrov was traveling to Turkey on Wednesday and will hold a bilateral meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, on December 1.

“Our president’s, our views on Assad are known”, said Cavusoglu.

“Why did we enter?”

He also said Moscow was doing its best to protect civilians and provide humanitarian aid but was obliged to distinguish between civilians, moderate rebels and Al-Nusra militants. “We have been discussing these issues with my dear friend Lavrov since yesterday evening”, he said. “[We didn’t enter] for any other reason”, the president said.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told Russian news agencies November 30 that his government was puzzled by Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s assertion a day earlier that Turkey was in Syria for no reason other than to topple President Bashar al-Assad. “The world is bigger than five, ” he said, referring to the number of permanent members on the UN Security Council, as reported by Hurriyet.

Russian Federation is a main backer of Assad, while Turkey supports the rebels fighting to oust him.

Aside from Syria, the two ministers discussed the situation in Iraq, Yemen, and Libya as well as the crisis in Ukraine and ongoing negotiations aimed at resolving the dispute between the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the Greek Cypriot south.

According to the Financial Times, “While the secret talks are not the first time a rebel representative has met with the Russians, those familiar with the talks said it was the first time such a large number of opposition groups were involved”.