Bashar al-Assad

Russia is "determined" to continue close cooperation and coordinated work with Turkey on diplomatic and military lines to fully normalize the situation in Syria, the country's Foreign Ministry said on Oct. 7.

The Syrian settlement traditionally occupies one of the central places in dialogue between Moscow and Ankara, Maria Zakharova told a news conference in Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad at the Kremlin where they discussed the political situation in Syria, international terrorism as well as issues of bilateral and humanitarian cooperation. The details about the meeting held on September 13 were published on the Russian leader's website on Tuesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is self-isolating as a precaution after several members of his entourage fell ill with COVID-19, but is "absolutely" healthy and does not have the disease himself, the Kremlin said on Sept. 14.

Turkey on Sept. 8 expressed "concern" over the latest reports of Assad regime forces escalating attacks on the Daraa al-Balad neighborhood in southwestern Syria.

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"We are closely monitoring the developments in Daraa with concern," Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgiç said in a written statement.

Turkey on Sept. 2 marked six years since the body of 3-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi washed ashore, making headlines worldwide and becoming a symbol of the refugee crisis from the war in Syria.

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The toddler had been on board a boat carrying 14 irregular migrants, five of whom died when it sank.

President Bashar al-Assad took the oath of office for a fourth term in war-ravaged Syria on July 17, after officially winning 95 percent of the vote in an election dismissed abroad.

It was the second presidential poll since the start of a decade-long civil war that has killed almost half a million people and battered the country's infrastructure.

He reminded that the path to EU membership implies harmonization with its foreign policy.
"The EU's position regarding the normalization of relations with the regime in Syria is clear and unchanged, and the recent elections organized by the Syrian regime cannot lead to international normalization," Stano told Radio Free Europe.

Syrian politician Ammar Haidar, imprisoned by the Bashar Assad regime in 2009, reunited with his daughter Marwa Haidar in the Turkish metropolis Istanbul after 12 years.

Born in Hama, Syria, Haidar, since his youth, has opposed the Assad family due to their anti-democratic practices.

Turkey's vice president urged the EU on July 6 to open legal migration routes for Syrians as part of the fair burden and responsibility sharing principle.

Fuat Oktay also appealed for member states to activate the voluntary humanitarian admission mechanism with concrete commitments and to increase the settlement quotas for refugees.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been re-elected for a fourth seven-year term in a presidential election on Wednesday dismissed by the opposition as a sham, news wires reported. Al-Assad won 95.1% of the valid votes, head of the Syrian parliament Hamoud Sabagh said. Some 78.6% of eligible voters cast ballots inside and outside Syria, Sabagh added at a press conference in Damascus.