What are the main obstacles in the normalization of relations between Ankara and Damascus?
Mehr News, International Group: These days, Turkish officials regularly talk about their desire and desire to normalize relations with Syria. But stepping on this path is not easy and there are still serious challenges and obstacles. Syria, which has suffered many adversities and damages from its neighbor, has not abandoned the side of caution and seeks to test and announce the necessary preconditions for reestablishing diplomatic relations.
The political-security team of Damascus, after negotiating with the Turkish delegation, discussed its serious considerations with Erdogan’s envoys and did not fail to meet the important conditions of Damascus. Is. The clear conditions announced by Syria for the normalization of relations with Turkey have solid political and legal foundations and are not issues that can be negotiated. For example, the Syrian government wants all Turkish military forces to leave Syria, especially west of the Euphrates.
Erdogan’s desire to meet with Assad
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the leader of the country’s ruling party and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Erdogan’s cabinet, Hakan Fidan, have repeatedly talked about the issue of “opening a page “New in Ankara-Damascus relations” is possible and possible. Even Erdogan spoke so exaggeratedly about this issue that some Turkish media expected Erdogan and Assad to meet with the mediation of Putin at the Shanghai Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan. On his return from Astana, Erdogan told reporters that “Mr. Assad” may be invited to Turkey. During his trip to Washington and attending the summit of the NATO military alliance, he announced once again that he is ready to meet with Assad.
From trying to overthrow, to the hand of friendship
This is not the first time that Turkey has shown that it has realized its mistake and failure in Syria. Long before the 2023 elections, Hakan Fidan, on Erdogan’s orders, started the project of trying to normalize the relationship with Syria with the mediation of Russia. But Damascus came to the conclusion that Erdoğan only has an electoral motive and is used as a tool in domestic politics. Therefore, do not accept Ankara’s request. But now Erdogan’s team is still looking for this story. Now the question of journalists and analysts is this: Turkey, as a country that was part of the Syrian crisis and in addition to arming tens of thousands of armed opponents against the official government of Assad, opened its borders to thousands of extremist terrorists to go to Syria, why Looking for a change of status?
In response, it should be said: Over the past few years, Erdogan has changed his foreign policy towards Greece, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Zionist regime in a sinusoidal turn. It has changed because Erdoğan’s team has clearly realized the fact that they have made obvious mistakes in all regional cases and now they have to come out of this situation with less damage.
In the very first months of the beginning of the Syrian crisis, it was Turkey that formed an illegal and dangerous group called the “Syrian National Army” and captured a number of fugitive Syrian commanders. attracted and provided them with billions of dollars in weapons, ammunition, financial facilities, schools and border military bases to overthrow the Assad government in the battlefield. Of course, Turkey did not count only on the military and gathered dozens of political opponents and even allowed a completely illegal and dangerous phenomenon called “Syrian opposition government abroad” to form. The funds and credits required for these groups, as well as dozens of buildings and their political offices, were all paid by Turkey in partnership with Qatar, so that a government that is completely under the protection of Ankara will be established in Damascus. But despite spending several billion dollars, this project was not completed and Turkey’s policy failed.
Erdogan’s main motivations
The official statistics of the Ministry of Interior of Turkey show that three and a half million Syrian refugees live in different cities of this country. Now that Turkey is in a massive economic crisis, far-right nationalists are pouring gasoline on the fire of the Turks and instead of blaming the inflation and crisis on the government, they identify the Syrian refugees as the main culprit. As a result, a propaganda and social atmosphere against Syrian immigrants has been created in Turkey, and some time ago, the shops and houses of hundreds of Syrian refugees in Kayseri, Ghazi Antab, Istanbul and Khatai were attacked by extremist Turks. Based on these developments, it is Erdogan who wants to normalize relations with Damascus and provide the ground for the return of refugees.
Another goal and motivation of the Erdogan government is that it wants to share in the huge profits of the reconstruction of Syria, and at the same time, to turn Syrian cities into markets for the consumption of Turkish goods. slow On the other hand, the Syrian opposition on the Turkish border set dozens of Turkish flags on fire and showed that they are worried about the normalization of relations between Damascus and Ankara. Now Turkey is also afraid of these violent armed groups and wants to free itself from their costs and troubles.
America’s insidious gaze
The administration of Joe Biden has shown that he is not happy with Turkey’s approach to Syria. On the surface, Washington officials do not publicly oppose the process of normalizing relations between the two countries, but the tone of American politicians shows that they have a hostile and belligerent attitude towards the official government of Bashar al-Assad. The US Ministry of Foreign Affairs has officially announced that it does not agree with the normalization of relations, but it does not oppose any action that will reduce the suffering of the Syrian people! It is clear that America, with this seemingly humanitarian gesture, says that it will deal with the relations between Turkey and Syria only on the condition that the level of this relationship is only at the level of solving the problem of refugees and asylum seekers and does not go higher than this.
Therefore, it can be assumed that behind the scenes, there are serious signs that the Americans are not cooperating with the Erdogan government in terms of normalizing relations with Damascus. Because solving the problems and political differences between Turkey and Syria will not only include friendship and companionship in the west of the Euphrates, and it will not be long before the Syrian government wants full control of the east of the Euphrates and the northern and eastern regions, and as a result, all the protected groups America, including the so-called “People’s Protection Units” (YPG) and the group that calls itself “Syrian Democratic Forces” (SDF), must be disbanded.
The coming weeks and months can show the level of goodwill of the Turkish government regarding the normalization of relations with Syria. Bashar al-Assad, as the president who has fought with several terrorist and extremist groups for years alongside his army and nation, is more experienced than he is on the road to normalization without the preparation of preparations and the declaration of Turkey’s full adherence to the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria. Relations with Ankara will take a step forward.
