Türkiye has played a key mediating role this week in brokering a ceasefire in Syria’s southern Sweida province, where simmering tensions between Bedouin Arab and Druze communities escalated into armed clashes involving government-backed forces, Turkish security sources said on Thursday.
According to the sources, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and National Intelligence Organization (MIT) chief Ibrahim Kalin led Türkiye’s efforts on the ground, engaging in high-level diplomacy that ultimately brought the warring factions to a truce.
“Türkiye made every effort to eliminate risks threatening Syria’s territorial integrity, unity, and security,” one security source said. “Field-level diplomacy by Minister Fidan and Director Kalin was instrumental in halting the violence.”
The two-day clashes in the Druze-majority province, which saw government-aligned forces enter the fray, threatened to destabilise a region that had remained relatively insulated from Syria’s broader civil conflict in recent years.
Regional and international outreach
Kalin reportedly held multiple conversations with officials from the US, Syria, and Israel, including Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa and US Ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack, who also serves as Washington’s special envoy for Syria.
MIT also consulted with veteran Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt to help de-escalate the situation. Foreign Minister Fidan conducted parallel outreach, speaking with counterparts in Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the United States.
Both Fidan and Kalin kept President Recep Tayyip Erdogan regularly briefed on the unfolding events and Türkiye’s diplomatic interventions, according to the sources.
Syrian President Al Sharaa was said to have acknowledged Türkiye’s role in restoring calm, noting that “without effective mediation by Turkish, American, and Arab actors, the outcome could have been catastrophic.”
The incident underscores Ankara’s continued ambition to act as a stabilising force in regional crises, even in areas under the nominal control of the Damascus government.
