ISTANBUL — Turkey made it clear Thursday that it officially recognized a newly formed rebel coalition as the legitimate leader of the Syrian people, an important step in the group’s effort to attract legitimacy and, it hopes, more weapons to bring about the end of President Bashar Assad’s rule.

Turkey ‘‘once again reiterates its recognition of the Syrian national coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people,’’ Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said in a speech at an Organization of Islamic Cooperation meeting in Djibouti, the tiny country on the Horn of Africa.