Thousands of local residents held protests across the Turkish occupation zone in northern Syria on Aug. 12, to oppose calls by Ankara for "reconciliation" with the Bashar Assad dictatorship. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, speaking to diplomats in Ankara the day before, said, "We have to somehow get the opposition and the regime to reconcile in Syria. Otherwise, there will be no lasting peace, we always say this." He also revealed that he met with the Syrian regime's Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in October 2021 at the Non-Aligned Movement meeting in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. Angry protests, under the slogan "We will not reconcile," were held in the towns of al-Bab [7], Afrin [8] and Jarablus [9], as well as areas controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS [13]) in neighboring Idlib [14] governorate. In the town of Azaz [10], a Turkish flag was burned by protesters. (Syria Direct [11], AFP [15])
