‘It can happen,’ Turkish president says 16 years after relations were severed by civil war ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan opened the door on Friday to a restoration of ties with the Assad regime in Damascus 16 years after relations were severed at the start of the Syrian civil war. “There is no reason for it not to happen,” Erdogan said. “Just as we kept our ties very lively in the past, we even held talks between our families with Assad, it is certainly not possible to say this will not happen again in the future, it can happen.” Turkiye cut ties with Syria in 2011 and supported opposition forces trying to oust Assad. It has carried out several cross-border military operations against militants it says threaten its national security and formed a “safe zone” in northern Syria where Turkish troops are now stationed. Authorities in Syria have demanded that these forces be removed. However, as part of a regional charm offensive Turkiye has said it may restore ties with Damascus if there is progress on the fight against terrorism, on the safe and voluntary return of millions of refugees hosted by Turkey, and on the political process. Assad said this week that his government was open to normalization initiatives as long as they respected Syria’s sovereignty and contributed to counter-terrorism.