Syria’s new diplomatic chief Asaad al-Shaybani will visit Türkiye tomorrow (Wednesday) as part of a foreign ministry tour of the transitional government that has taken power in Damascus since the overthrow of the Assad regime in December.

“We will represent the new Syria tomorrow (Wednesday) in the first official visit to Türkiye, which has not abandoned the Syrian people in 14 years,” Asaad al-Shaybani said in a post on the X (formerly Twitter) platform.

Türkiye has been a key supporter of the Syrian opposition during the 14-year civil war in its neighboring country.

Ankara seeks to serve its strategic interests in Syria. In the north of the country, it supports the Syrian National Army (SNA) in its operations against Kurdish forces. The People’s Protection Units (YPG) are seen by Agyra as the Syrian arm of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which has been outlawed in Turkey. As such, the YPG is designated a “terrorist organization.”

Türkiye is also seeking to encourage the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland.

Turkish Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, and Turkish Intelligence Chief Ibrahim Kalin were the first to visit Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sara in Damascus, a few days after the jihadist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other rebel groups seized power after Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow.