A high-level Turkish military delegation visited the Syrian capital, Damascus, and met with the Syrian Minister of Defense, Chief of Staff, and Syrian officers.

The Syrian official news agency (SANA) reported today, Thursday, January 30, that Minister of Defense, Murhaf Abu Qasra, Chief of Staff, General Ali al-Nasan, and a number of Syrian officers received a high-level military delegation from the Turkish Ministry of Defense.

It added that the visit included a tour of army barracks.

The agency did not provide further details regarding the contents of the meeting, but Turkish visits to Syria began with the entry of the Syrian opposition factions into Damascus and the flight of the ousted regime leader Bashar al-Assad towards Moscow.

The Turkish Ministry of Defense stated via “X” that a military delegation visited Syria on Wednesday for technical discussions.

The ministry’s spokesperson, Zeki Aktürk, said during a press briefing that the visit was part of Turkey’s ongoing efforts to enhance Syria’s defensive and security capabilities and to ensure the voluntary, safe, and dignified return of Syrians, in cooperation with the new administration.

He stated, “We will continue to take preventive and destructive measures against all terrorist organizations, foremost among them (PKK/PYD/YPG/SDG) and the Islamic State group, which threaten the administrative and geographical integrity of Syria and the peace and calm in our country and region.”

On its part, the Turkish newspaper Yeni Şafak reported that a high-level military delegation from the Turkish Ministry of Defense visited Damascus and met with Syrian officials.

It added that the delegation held a series of meetings with senior Syrian military officials and inspected Syrian army military facilities on site.

The Turkish military visit came just days after a visit by the Turkish intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalin, to Damascus, where he met with the Syrian transitional president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Asaad al-Shibani, and the head of the General Intelligence, Anas Khattab.

Turkish delegations were the first to arrive in Damascus after the fall of the Syrian regime on December 8, 2024, when a Turkish diplomatic delegation arrived in Damascus on a visit that was the first of its kind in 13 years.

Turkish visits to Syria were suspended since August 9, 2011, when the then Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, visited Syria and met with the ousted Assad, as well as visited the city of Hama, which was experiencing military tensions due to peaceful popular protests demanding the ousting of the Assad regime.

Davutoğlu’s visit marked the beginning of a path of tension in the relationship between Ankara and the ousted Syrian regime, which manifested in a political rift that lasted until al-Assad’s fall.