Assad’s Position Strengthens In Syria With Renewed Russian And Iranian Support

On Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a one-day visit to Russia to attend the unveiling of the new Cathedral Mosque in Moscow, described as one of the largest Muslim prayer halls in Europe. He also met with his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, and announced the lofty goal of reaching $100 billion in trade between their two countries by 2023.

Russia's importance to Turkey's economy — particularly its energy sector — perhaps shadowed the comments Erdogan made on his return. When asked about a solution to Syria's brutal civil war, the Turkish president gestured to a long-mooted, potential "process" of political transition. He spoke directly for the first time of the possible role that could be played by the embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

[How Turkey's Erdogan and Russia's Putin were made for each other.]

"The process could possibly be without Assad, or the transitional process could be with him," Erdogan told reporters after Eid prayers in Istanbul.

Erdogan, perhaps more than any major world leader, has been consistent and adamant about the need for Assad to step down before anything else is settled in Syria.

"A Syria without Assad has been a slogan for a number of Western governments," notes Murat Yetkin, editor of Hurriyet Daily News, an Istanbul-based English newspaper, "but Turkey has insisted that the timing of Assad’s removal should come at the beginning of the 'transition' period, not at the end of it."

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/25/assads-position-strengthens-in-syria-with-renewed-russian-and-iranian-support/