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Syria's Sharaa reveals phone call with Turkey's Erdogan

The de facto leader of Syria and HTS commander thanks Ankara for its help and says he will visit Turkey soon
Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks to the media on 20 January 2025 (Reuters)
By Ragip Soylu in Ankara

Syria's de-facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa revealed on Thursday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had congratulated him on his victory last month during a phone call following the collapse of former president Bashar al-Assad's government.

This marks the first time Sharaa has acknowledged directly engaging with a head of state.

“President Erdogan called and spoke with me,” he told Turkish TV channel A Haber. “He was also among the first to congratulate us on our victory on the very first day. We felt a great closeness and a sense of gratitude toward Turkey for this support.”

Two Turkish sources familiar with the matter confirmed to Middle East Eye that such a phone call took place following the ousting of Assad, who fled Syria for Russia.

Ankara has supported the Syrian rebels for the past 13 years, even as other traditional backers such as Saudi Arabia and the United States appeared to abandon them.

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Erdogan, immediately after the fall of Aleppo, issued a message of support for the rebel offensive led by Sharaa's Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group once affiliated to al-Qaeda.

“Idlib, Hama, Homs, and of course, the ultimate target is Damascus. The opposition's march continues,” the Turkish president said in December. “Our hope is that this march in Syria proceeds without any accidents or troubles.”

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Sharaa, the leader of HTS, praised Turkey's “moral stance” on Syria, which he said remained consistent over the years.

“Erdogan, in particular, stood by the oppressed and never supported the human discrimination and killings carried out in Syria,” he said.

"History will write about President Erdogan. The Syrian people will always stand by the Turkish people and will never forget this support, always standing alongside them in gratitude for it.”

Sharaa also stated that Turkey would be one of the first countries he would visit, along with Saudi Arabia.

“I am waiting for an invitation to arrive, but we don't know yet when we will go. However, we will either visit Turkey or Saudi Arabia,” he said, adding that no date had been set.

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