Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan once embraced his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad as “my brother” and hosted his family at a holiday resort. But since the Syrian civil war started in 2011 the friendship has crumbled and the leaders have found new names for each other — including “thief”, “terrorist” and “butcher”.
However, after years of calling for regime change in Damascus and backing the armed opposition, Ankara appears ready to shift its stance once more, with Erdoğan last month saying he would soon meet Assad to “pour oil on troubled waters”.
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