Turkey returns empty-handed from Tehran summit

The seventh trilateral summit in the “Astana Format” between Turkey, Russia and Iran was held last Tuesday in Tehran where the situation in Syria was reviewed. As announced beforehand, bilateral meetings were also held between the leaders.

Turkey was expecting support from Russia and Iran — and partly from the US — to clear the areas controlled by Kurdish fighters. Washington withdrew the Kurdish fighters from the border area but provided them a more advantageous position by transferring the right to control the Syrian oil wells.

Erdogan did his best to explain his case at the Tehran summit. He pointed out that a consensus was reached in 2019 to establish on the Syrian side of the border a 30 km to 40 km corridor to be patrolled exclusively by Turkish soldiers to ward off terrorist attacks on Turkey. The project, however, never materialized.