Passengers disembark from a Turkish Airlines aircraft carrying a diplomatic delegation from Ankara and an aid shipment provided by the Turkish Red Crescent, at the Damascus International Airport in the Syrian capital on January 23, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Commercial flights between Turkey and Syria resumed on Thursday (January 23, 2025) after 13 years with a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Damascus.

Turkish media showed Syrian families draped in their national flag singing pro-opposition songs and cheering as they prepared to board flight TK0846 to Damascus. Passengers continued their celebrations inside the plane, singing the uprising anthem “Hold your head up high, you are a free Syrian.” One man sobbed while waiting for takeoff.

“I missed Syria and am happy to fly back,” said Fuad Abdulhalid, who has lived in Turkey for 12 years.

Another passenger, Nail Beyazid, expressed hope as he prepared to visit his home for the first time since fleeing from Syria.

“We are very happy that [Syria] was liberated, and the situation is very good,” Beyazid said. “We had a house, a factory. We also had cars, which are gone now. We are going back to take a look.”

Also Read | Syria war: Fall of Damascus appears to align with long-time goals of neighbour Turkiye

Since the lightning rebel offensive that ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad a month ago, Arab and Western countries that had cut off relations with the former government have been reopening diplomatic relations with Syria’s new de facto authorities, headed by the Islamist former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS.

The first international commercial flight since Assad’s fall, a Royal Jordanian Airlines plane, landed in Damascus earlier this month.

Turkey, a key ally of Syria’s new authorities, has expressed its intention to invest in its economy and help its ailing electricity and energy sectors.

Turkish Airlines CEO Bilal Eksi announced earlier this month that the airline would fly three times a week between Istanbul and Damascus. The move followed a visit to Ankara by Syria’s foreign minister, Asaad al-Shibani, who met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, shakes hands with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
| Photo Credit: AP

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said he might invite his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad to Turkiye “at any moment”, in a sign of reconciliation after the 2011 war broke ties between Ankara and Damascus.

Mr. Erdogan’s comments come after tensions have mounted over the past week after a mob went on the rampage, vandalising businesses and properties owned by Syrians in a central Anatolian city.

“We may send an invitation (to Assad) at any moment,” Mr. Erdogan told journalists aboard a plane from Berlin where he watched Euro 2024, the official Anadolu news agency and other media reported.

Turkiye originally aimed to topple Mr. Assad’s regime when the Syrian conflict erupted with the violent suppression of peaceful protesters in 2011 and backed rebels calling for his ouster.

But more recently, Ankara has shifted focus to preventing what Mr. Erdogan in 2019 dubbed a “terror corridor” from opening up in northern Syria.

He has long said he could reconsider ties with Mr. Assad as his government is working to ensure safe and voluntary return of Syrian refugees.

Speaking to journalists, Mr. Erdogan said some leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested to mediate a meeting with Assad in Turkiye.

“Now we have come to such a point that as soon as Bashar al-Assad takes a step towards improving relations with Turkiye, we will show him the same approach,” Mr. Erdogan said.

Violence

Turkish authorities this week detained over 470 people after anti-Syrian riots in several cities sparked by accusations that a Syrian man had allegedly harassed a Syrian minor in Kayseri.

Mr. Erdogan on Monday blamed the opposition for stoking tensions and condemned the anti-Syrian violence as “unacceptable”.

The fate of Syrian refugees is a burning issue in Turkish politics, with Mr. Erdogan’s opponents in last year’s presidential election promising to send them back to Syria.

Turkeiye, which hosts some 3.2 million Syrian refugees according to UN data, has been shaken several times by bouts of xenophobic violence in recent years, often triggered by rumours spreading on social media and instant messaging applications.

The riots in Kayseri spread to several other cities including Istanbul this week while clashes between armed protesters and guards of Turkish positions in Syria’s north killed seven people.

Turkiye has launched a string of offensives in Syria since 2016 targeting Kurdish militias, Islamic State group jihadists and forces loyal to Assad.

Pro-Turkish forces in Syria now control two vast strips of territory along the border.

On Monday, hundreds of Syrians demonstrated throughout the Ankara-controlled area, with some armed protesters attacking Turkish trucks and military posts, and taking down Turkish flags.

Mr. Erdogan has vowed to reveal “which dirty hands” triggered the clashes in northern Syria.

According to the Syrian Observatory, four border crossings with Turkiye have been shut in the wake of the violence. There was no immediate confirmation by the Turkish government.