Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had pressed for the departure of Syrian President Bashar Assad for any solution of the intractable Syrian conflict, has said a solution that would include Assad is possible during a transition process. "It is possible that this [transition] process may be without Assad or the transition process may continue with Assad. However, nobody sees a future with Assad in Syria. It is impossible for them [Syrian] to accept a dictator who led to the death of up to 350,000 people," Erdogan said on Thursday following Eid prayers in İstanbul. The comments represent a softening of Turkey's position towards Assad, whose four-year war against rebel groups and Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) fighters has claimed more than 200,000 lives. The United States and Britain have already made similar shifts to their stances on Syria, as Russia bolsters its support for Assad with a military buildup in the country. US Secretary of State John Kerry recently said that the timing of Assad's exit following a peace deal would be negotiable. That had prompted a swift rebuke from Turkey as Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioğlu rejected any solution that does not exclude Assad from the start. Last Saturday, he clung to Ankara's firm position, stating that, after committing brutal atrocities against his own people, Assad cannot be part of any solution. Backing armed opposition groups fighting the regime, Ankara places most of blame on the Assad regime for carnage and devastation in Syria, clinging to the view that the regime's brutal methods to crush upheaval has been the chief reason that fed extremism.
