Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa – also known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani – in Damascus on Sunday, Turkey’s foreign ministry said.
Sharaa is the leader of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which led the operation to topple Bashar al-Assad two weeks ago.
Footage shared by Turkey's foreign ministry showed the two men embrace and pose for photographs.
On Friday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey would help Syria's new administration form a state structure and draft a new constitution, adding Fidan would head to Damascus to discuss this new structure, without providing a date.
Ankara had for years backed rebels looking to oust Assad and welcomed the end of his family's brutal five-decade rule after a 13-year civil war.
Turkey also hosts millions of Syrian migrants it hopes will start returning home after Assad's fall and has vowed to help rebuild Syria.
Fidan's visit comes amid fighting in northeast Syria between Turkey-backed Syrian fighters and the Kurdish YPG militia, which spearheads the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, that Ankara regards as a terrorist organization.
Speaking alongside Sharaa after the talks, Fidan said, quote, “there is no place" for Kurdish militias in Syria.
Turkey, alongside Syrian allies, has mounted several cross-border offensives against the Kurdish faction in northern Syria and controls swathes of territory along the border.
Ankara has repeatedly demanded Washington halt support for the Kurdish fighters.
The SDF has been on the back foot since Assad's fall as it looks to preserve political gains made in the last 13 years now that Syria's new rulers are friendly to Ankara.
Sharaa said his administration would soon announce the new structure of the defence ministry and military... and would not allow for arms outside the control of the state.
Seeking to allay worries about the future of Syria, Sharaa has hosted numerous foreign visitors in recent days, and has vowed to prioritize rebuilding Syria.
TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTRY / REUTERS / TURKISH INTELLIGENCE HANDOUT VIA REUTERS
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