AKP signals possible Erdoğan-Assad contact: 'Diplomacy level might increase'

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Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy chair Hayati Yazıcı has signaled that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan might make a direct contact with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

Yazıcı made the comments to Haber Global during an event marking the AKP's 21st year anniversary on Aug. 15. Asked if there could be contact “at the level of leaders” between Turkey and Syria, Yazıcı said: “I am not in a position to say 'It could never happen.' It would start at some point, and hopefully, its [diplomacy] level might increase.”

Last week, Turkey's pro-government newspaper Türkiye reported that Erdoğan and Assad might soon hold a telephone conversation after Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed this during his recent meeting with Erdoğan in Sochi.

“It is being said that a gulf country and another Muslim country in Africa are running a diplomacy traffic with two sides [Turkey and Syria] for the Erdoğan-Assad contact. It is being said that the Erdoğan-Assad contact, for which Ankara says is 'Yet early,' can take place over the phone,” the newspaper wrote.

However, Çavuşoğlu on Aug. 11 also refuted allegations of any high-level contact taking place between the governments of Turkey and Syria, saying that “only talks between the intelligence services have resumed.”

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