Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed in an interview with CNN today, Friday, that there are no obstacles to reconciliation with Damascus, pointing out: "But we will keep our forces in northern Syria." The presidential candidate for a new term stated that he will "certainly" work with President Biden or "whoever replaces him." Erdogan described his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin as "special," stating: "We do not have problems in our relationship with Russia at the moment, and we are not at a stage where we impose sanctions on Russia as the West has... We are not obligated to the West's sanctions." He criticized the West's unbalanced approach to Russia, saying: "You need a balanced approach to a country like Russia, which could have been a much more fortunate approach."
In part of the interview, he discussed his plans regarding Syrian refugees in Turkey if re-elected. He said: "The opposition constantly focuses on one thing. They say: when we come to power, we will return the Syrian refugees in Turkey. It is impossible for me to agree with that." He noted that "if we are going to do something like this, we will have to take certain measures," stating that "Turkish non-profit organizations are building housing units in northern parts of Syria. Why? So that refugees here in Turkey can return to their homeland. This process has already started, and we are now about to launch another initiative to encourage one million refugees to return to their homeland. We are building housing units. These are good projects."
