Dear Farid,
I am pretty sure it does not mean another extra 12 months for the files that were processed to some stage already in Damascus. It is just a prediction for the new files that never made their way to Damascus and no processing has been done on them, still it is just a prediction from a lawyer, could be wrong as we all know with CIC nothing is predictable!
I also think the prediction might not be that off, before getting Syria's files processing time for sponsorship in Ankara was 5 months, with a 500% increase in the number of the files they had we all knew the 5 months will go up, 12 months doesn't sound that off, most of the sponsorship files in Damascus were Iranian files (I am pretty sure I read this somewhere, don't remember where!
) and Damascus took 14 months according to CIC's most recent update. So the number of months it will probably take Ankara to process the files will be more closer to Damascus's timeline, but still less than that. That's how I think they got this 12 months! Just with some math and formula, even poor CIC itself doesn't know the timeline for the future! Lots and lots of things could be going on in Ankara that lawyers don't know about and can't put in their formula! Such as hiring new staff or thing like that ...
So I personally don't think this 12 months means anything or is important at all