Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is teasing a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, brokered by Vladimir Putin. The Russian president had been pressing for a Turkish-Russian reconciliation for years, and the endgame seems closer than ever, propelled by Erdogan’s sense of opportunity as a result of the Ukraine war.   

Coming together? On Thursday, Erdogan gave the most upbeat assessment yet of the prospects for a reconciliation with Assad: “As Russia-Turkey-Syria, we have launched a process through the meeting of our intelligence chiefs and defense ministers in Moscow. Then, God willing, we will bring our foreign ministers together trilaterally. Then, depending on the developments, we will come together as leaders.”  

Syrian opposition on notice: On Friday, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar warned Turkish-backed opposition groups in Syria against "provocations” that could upset a potential rapprochement between Syria and Turkey, while assuring the groups that Ankara would not sell them out, if the process moves ahead, as Ezgi Akin reports. Protests against the possible rapprochement have taken place in Aleppo and Idlib governorates this week, Marita Kassis reports.   

Syrian Kurds in Crossfire: Erdogan is, as always, upfront about his top priority in Syria: wiping out the mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces and their associated local parties, the Democratic Union Party and the People’s Protection Front, as Amberin Zaman explains. Turkey links the groups to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which it considers a terrorist group. A deal with Assad might preempt a long-threatened invasion to “close the gaps” in the Turkish security belt 30 kilometers (18 miles) deep into Syria. Erdogan said Turkey plans to “destroy the entire infrastructure of the terrorist group it draws its strength from.”