TRENDING NOW: Gaza War and Ceasefire Talks. Post-Assad Syria: Ahmed Al-Sharaa. Breadcrumbs: News MENA. Turkish FM dismisses Trump’s assertion of Ankara’s ‘takeover’ in Syria Turkey’s top ambassador has rejected Trump’s claims that his country has taken over Syria, while calling on the West to remove HTS from their terror lists. MENA 3 minute read The New Arab Staff and Agencies 19 December 2024. Share Flipboard Reddit WhatsApp X Facebook Fidan said it would be inaccurate to describe Turkey as the power that would eventually dominate Syria. [Image: Arda Kucukkaya/Anadolu/Getty] Turkey on Wednesday dismissed US President-elect Donald Trump’s suggestion that the rebel ousting of Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad was a “unfriendly takeover” by Ankara. “We wouldn’t call it a takeover; it would be ” in those terms, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told broadcaster Al Jazeera in an interview.”For Syrian people, it is not a takeover. I think if there is any takeover, it’s the will of the Syrian people which is taking over now.”On Monday, Trump said: “The people that went in (to Syria) are controlled by Turkey and that’s ok.””Turkey did an unfriendly takeover, without a lot of lives being lost,” the billionaire businessman told reporters.

Since the start of the anti-Assad revolution in 2011, Turkey has been viewed as a crucial supporter of the opposition to his regime. It has housed political dissidents, millions of refugees, and supported guerrilla organizations battling the army. Fidan stated that it would be inaccurate to characterize Turkey as the power that will eventually dominate Syria. “I think that would be the last thing that we want to see, because we are drawing huge lessons from what’s been happening in our region, because the culture of domination itself has destroyed our region,” he told me. “Therefore, it is not Turkish domination, not Iranian domination, not Arab domination, but cooperation should be essential,” he made clear. “Our solidarity with Syria”