ANKARA
Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has intensively kept in contact over the phone with his foreign counterparts regarding Turkey's military operation in Syria to retrieve the remains of Suleyman Shah.
Suleyman Shah was the grandfather of Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire. His tomb and about 40 Turkish soldiers who guarded the territory inside war-torn Syria were relocated Saturday during the "Shah Firat" military operation.
According to diplomatic sources, Cavusoglu exchanged views Monday with Sweden's FM Margot Wallstrom, French FM Laurent Fabius, Spanish FM Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, Italian FM Paolo Gentiloni and Norwegian FM Borge Brende on the latest development following the "Shah Firat" operation.
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Cavusoglu and expressed his condolences to Turkey and family of the Turkish soldier who died in an accident during the operation.
According to a State Department offical, the U.S. and Turkey had been in close coordination regarding developments in Syria, including intelligence and information sharing.
On Sunday, Cavusoglu also spoke with his Dutch, British, Danish, Saudi Arabian, and Qatari counterparts as well as with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
The two-pronged operation began late Saturday and ended on Sunday. It retrieved the remains of Suleyman Shah and sacred relics from the original exclave in Karakozak Village in Munbic, Syria, some 37 kilometers away from the border, to Turkey.
Turkey gained the right to guard the exclave after a 1921 agreement with France, which ruled Syria at the time.
Turkey secured another area in Syria, Ashme, close to the border with Turkey to serve as Suleyman Shah’s temporary burial place.
The operation involved nearly 600 troops and 39 tanks.
