But it will mean little for millions of Syrians beset by poverty
It is easy to see why the Syrian president wants to reach out to Turkey, which controls more than 5% of Syria’s territory . Mr Assad would like the land back. It would also be a diplomatic coup to restore ties with a country that supported the opposition—and which is aRecep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, has his own reasons. The 4m Syrian refugees in Turkey have become deeply unpopular, a useful issue for his opponents to hammer ahead of elections in a few months’ time .
This is becoming a pattern. Mr Assad is emerging from isolation in the Middle East, if not the West, but has little to show for it. He no doubt hoped that restoring ties with thewould open a gusher of aid and investment. It did not. Even if American sanctions were not a concern , Emirati firms are not queuing up to pour money into a war-torn kleptocracy. Old friends of Syria are not much help either. Russia never invested much.
With few sources of hard currency, the regime’s finances are a mess. On January 2nd it devalued the official exchange rate by 33%, to 4,522 Syrian pounds to the dollar, still a good bit stronger than the black market, where the rate sits around 6,500. Last month Mr Assad approved a budget worth 16.6trn pounds, 24% up on the previous year—in local currency. In dollar terms it is worth about one-third less . The amount earmarked for subsidies is 12% lower than last year.
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