By Selen Temizer
ANKARA (AA) – Diplomatic efforts to find a political solution to the seven-year-long civil war in Syria have been accelerating.
The failure of the recent Geneva talks is turning eyes to the summit of Turkey, Russia and Iran set to take place in Russia’s coastal city of Sochi on Wednesday.
The cease-fire — despite violations of the Bashar al-Assad regime — which took effect last December at the initiative of Turkey and Russia, started off the Astana, Kazakhstan process, which opened the way for new negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland.
Representatives of the Assad regime and the opposition met with many countries, including the U.S., European countries, Turkey, Russia, and Iran four times in Geneva this year.
Although after the Astana process attacks by the Assad regime and Iranian-backed groups were largely under control, the Geneva talks remained inconclusive.
The parties in Geneva are expected to hold their eighth meeting on Nov. 28. According to sources from the UN, they plan to focus on drafting a constitution and fighting terrorism.
But the Syrian opposition is crying foul at the regime’s tightening of its military siege in the Eastern Ghouta region, east of the capital Damascus.
The Syrian opposition has criticized the U.S. and other Western countries for not doing more to end the civil war in the region.
– Guarantor countries’ Sochi summit
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, along with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani, will discuss Syria at Wednesday’s trilateral summit.
Foreign ministers and technical committees of the three guarantor countries of the Astana process finished their preliminary preparations for the summit last week in Turkey’s Mediterranean province of Antalya.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stressed that it would be unacceptable to invite the PKK/PYD terrorist organization to the Syrian People’s Congress which Russia planned to organize.
The PYD and its military YPG wing are Syrian branches of the PKK, which has waged war against Turkey for more than 30 years.
Since the PKK launched its terror campaign in Turkey in 1984, tens of thousands of people have been killed.
The U.S. and the coalition have largely ignored the PYD/PYG links to the PKK, which the U.S., EU, and Turkey list as a terrorist organization.
According to information received by Anadolu Agency from the parties who will attend meetings in Sochi, a joint declaration is expected to be released at the summit.
The summit will focus on preparations for the meeting, which is expected to take place on Dec. 3, and Russia has changed its name from the Syrian People’s Congress to the Syrian National Dialogue Congress at the request of the Assad regime.
If Turkey’s condition of no PKK/PYD involvement is met, it will be easier for Ankara to support the work of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, a carryover from the Astana period.
Ankara’s support for the Syrian National Dialogue Congress will only be possible if the participant profile is made up of opposition groups that support Syria’s unity and integrity.
Iran, similar to Turkey, believes that the three guarantor countries should determine the congress participants jointly.
The congress also might coincide with the final days of negotiations scheduled to start in Geneva on Nov. 28.
– Riyadh meeting
The opposition, which seeks to join the international negotiations as a single body, reached a far-reaching alliance in Riyadh last February and formed the High Negotiation Committee.
The group participated in the negotiations as legitimate representative of the opposition after getting support from the military opposition groups.
Finally, a meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh was planned for Nov. 22-24 for the members of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, along with groups known as the Cairo and Moscow platforms, some military opposition groups, as well as some independent figures.
But after the resignation of Riyad Hijab, the head of the High Negotiation Committee, the meeting was postponed.
Opposition sources believe that Hijab had to resign due to a Saudi/United Arab Emirates initiatives.
During the negotiations of foreign minister of the guarantor countries in Antalya on Sunday, Saudi officials in Riyadh met with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev.
