Turkey, Syria and Russia discussed on Wednesday in Moscow the possibility of transferring to the Syrian government the territories currently under Turkish control and ending the presence of Kurdish forces in the northeast of the country, a Syrian source told EFE on Thursday. Agerpres.

A source close to the process, who preferred to remain anonymous, explained that on the agenda of the discussions in the Russian capital was the transfer to Damascus of territories that Turkey controls in northern Syria after three cross-border offensives launched in 2016, 2018 and 2019.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu assured on Thursday that only “when there is political stability and everything is good in the country” they will transfer these territories to Syria. It was the first government-level meeting between the two countries since 2011.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, Syrian Minister Ali Mahmoud Abbas and their Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu discussed during a meeting on Wednesday the handover of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, which connects Turkish territory with the northeastern Syrian province. Idlib, the last bastion of the opposition in Syria, according to the quoted source. It is the only passage through which supplies are made to areas of Syria controlled by the Ankara-backed opposition.

Moscow has also discussed eliminating the presence in the country’s northeast of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led armed alliance whose main component, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), Ankara considers terrorist.

Last month, Turkey launched a campaign of attacks on areas held by Kurdish forces in northern Syria and again threatened a new large-scale operation.

During the last Turkish offensive in 2019, the FSD was forced to cooperate with its rival, the Damascus regime, and in recent months allowed its troops to deploy to points on its territory threatened by Ankara.

Among the topics discussed during the meeting were the return of Syrian refugees from Turkey, at least 3.6 million people – the largest concentration of Syrians outside the borders – and the deployment of Syrian government forces in all border areas.

The Turkish government, which directly opposed the regime in Damascus after the start of the armed conflict in Syria almost 12 years ago, announced a change of attitude a few months ago, mentioning the possibility of restoring relations with the government of Bashar al-Assad.