• Turkey’s intelligence chief has met with Syrian counterpart in Damascus several times recently,.
• Hurriyet columnist Abdulkadir Selvi says Erdogan made the remarks about Assad during a closed-door meeting of his ruling AK Party.
• Any détente between Ankara and Damascus would reshape Syria’s decade-long conflict.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan expressed a desire to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if the Syrian leader attended a summit in Uzbekistan, according to a report in Turkey’s pro-government Hurriyet newspaper on Friday.

He did, however, point out that Assad would not be attending the summit.

According to four sources, Turkey’s intelligence chief met with his Syrian counterpart in Damascus several times in recent weeks, a sign of Russian efforts to encourage a thaw between states on opposing sides of Syria’s war.

According to Hurriyet columnist Abdulkadir Selvi, Erdogan made the remarks about Assad during a closed-door meeting of his ruling AK Party on Monday.

“I wish Assad had visited Uzbekistan because I would have spoken with him. But he is unable to travel there “Selvi quoted Erdogan as saying at the party meeting.

“To maintain his power, he went to war with rebels. He chose to safeguard his own power. He considered defending the areas he controlled. He couldn’t, however, protect large areas “According to reports, Erdogan said.

Any détente between Ankara and Damascus would reshape Syria’s decade-long conflict.

After Assad defeated the insurgency across the rest of the country with the help of Russia and Iran, Turkish support has been critical in keeping Syrian rebels in their last major territorial foothold in the northwest.

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