Turkey has emerged as one of the most influential power brokers in Syria after rebels toppled Bashar al-Assad last month, ending his family's brutal five-decade rule.

More than 50,000 Syrian refugees have left Turkey to return home since Bashar al-Assad's ouster. "Now he's gone, many are willing to return but the Syria they left is not the same place," he told AFP.

The YPG spearheads the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Turkey considers them terrorists that are an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), against which Ankara carries out regular cross-border military operations in northern Iraq's mountainous regions.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called for combined regional efforts to combat outlawed Kurdish fighters in Iraq and neighbouring Syria during a visit to Baghdad on Sunday.

No country has as much to gain from a stable Syria as Turkey, and few have as much to lose if it implodes. Turkey is home to more than 3m Syrian refugees, and wants Syria to be safe enough for many to return.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan urged for a unified effort to combat Islamic State and Kurdish militants after his Baghdad talks. Turkey, branding the YPG and PKK as terrorists, seeks regional support and new cooperation strategies.

Assad, Turkey has become a vital power broker in Syria, with significant diplomatic, economic, and military influence. The country aims to leverage this to strengthen trade, cooperation, and address national security concerns related to Kurdish groups along its border.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for an inclusive transition in Syria after the fall of leader Bashar al-Assad, in a call with powerbroker Turkey, the State Department said Thursday.

The new administration’s first visit to Ankara comes amid an intensifying struggle for the partition of Syria between the states behind the overthrow of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by jihadists led by the al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

Turkey and Syria have agreed to reevaluate customs tariffs for certain products and they discussed economic and trade relations during meetings in Damascus, the Turkish trade ministry said on Friday.

“As of this week, Syria has decided to reduce customs duties on 269 products, including key Turkish exports such as chicken, eggs, flour, corn, milk, cream, iron and steel products, and hygiene goods,” Bolat announced during an event in Ankara.

A few days after the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad fled into exile, in December, an elderly woman sat on the sidewalk outside a morgue in Damascus. Her head wrapped in a scarf, she rocked back and forth and clasped her hands, wailing about what she had lost to Assad’s regime. “Help me,” she called. “They took my sons. Where are they?”