Türkiye said on Thursday it would continue helping Syria strengthen its military, despite rising tensions with Israel over Ankara’s role in the country.
A Turkish Defence Ministry spokesperson said Ankara would maintain its support for Syria’s efforts to strengthen its military capacity and rebuild its defence infrastructure in line with what Türkiye calls the “one army” principle.
The approach is aimed at strengthening Syrian state institutions and integrating the country’s armed forces under a unified national command following the fall of President Bashar Assad’s government in late 2024.
The spokesperson’s comments came two days after Israeli warplanes struck the Abu al-Duhur military airbase in north-western Syria, near the Turkish border.
Syrian state media said the strikes had damaged a runway and storage facilities but caused no casualties.
Israel said it carried out the attack because Syria was preparing to allow Turkish forces to deploy at the airbase – a move it views as a potential threat to Israeli security.
Ankara, however, rejected Israel’s account of events.
In its statement on Thursday, the Turkish Defence Ministry insisted that no Turkish military personnel had been present at Abu al-Duhur either before or during the Israeli strikes.
Syria has also denied that a Turkish military build-up was planned at the facility.
The dispute has fuelled an increasingly sharp war of words between the two regional powers.
Türkiye has accused Israel of violating Syrian sovereignty and using “untenable” allegations to justify attacks on Syrian territory.
Ankara also maintains that its cooperation with Damascus is legitimate and aims to restore stability after more than a decade of conflict in Syria.
Israel, meanwhile, has repeatedly warned against the expansion of Turkish military influence in the country.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was dragging his country into “dangerous adventures in Syria,” vowing that Israel would not allow any actor to threaten its security.
Since Assad’s departure, Türkiye has emerged as one of the new Syrian leadership’s strongest supporters, providing military training and technical assistance while expanding trade, energy and economic ties with Damascus.
The U.S., for its part, has sought to prevent the dispute from escalating further.
Tom Barrack, U.S. ambassador to Türkiye and special envoy for Syria, called the Israeli strike on the airbase an “unnecessary escalation.”
He also said Washington was working to establish a “de-confliction mechanism” between Türkiye, Israel and Syria to reduce the risk of an accidental military confrontation.
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