“The presidential elections announced by the Syrian regime to be held on 26 May 2021 are incompatible with the criteria of the road map put forward by the UNSC Resolution 2254,” the Ministry’s spokesman Tanju Bilgiç said, adding: “The elections, depriving almost 7 million Syrians in the diaspora of the suffrage, which are far from being free and fair, cannot be considered as legitimate by the international community.”

Bilgiç noted that Turkey will continue to support the efforts to find a political solution to the Syrian conflict on the basis of UNSC Resolution 2254.

Presidential elections will be held in the Syrian Arab Republic on 26 May 2021.

The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces said that the elections are “illegal and a farce”.

The United Nations has said that the elections are not part of the Syrian peace process and that it is not involved in it.

The United States has indicated that it will not recognize the outcome of the elections unless the voting is “free, fair, supervised by the United Nations, and represents all of Syrian society.” (ILKHA)