Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Western powers to throw their support behind Turkey in Syria in an op-ed published in Bloomberg on Monday.
Erdogan presented Turkey as a stabilizing force in Syria despite the fact that Ankara played a crucial role in fueling the war in its early stages in 2011 by training and sheltering the opposition group known as the Free Syrian Army. Throughout the war, Turkey has backed various groups in Syria, including militias aligned with al-Qaeda affiliates.
In 2020, Turkey sent thousands of fighters into Idlib province to halt a Syrian government offensive to retake the territory. Idlib is currently controlled mostly by Hayat Tahir al-Sham (HTS), an al-Qaeda affiliate formerly known as al-Nusra Front.
Turkey tries not to directly support HTS due to its al-Qaeda affiliation, but there have been instances of Turkish-backed militants fighting alongside HTS, and Ankara is suspected of coordinating with the group.
But Erdogan insists the so-called “moderate rebels” of Syria have been wrongly smeared. “Unfortunately, the moderate rebels, our local partners, have become the target of a coordinated smear campaign despite their hard work and sacrifice to defeat ISIS and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, another designated terrorist organization,” Erdogan wrote in Bloomberg.
Erdogan said the most “sensible option” in Syria for Western powers is to “throw their weight behind Turkey and become part of the solution in Syria, at minimum cost and with maximum impact.” But one of Erdogan’s conditions for this plan is for the West to cut off support for Kurdish forces in northeast Syria, something the Biden administration would likely never go for.
“Primarily, we expect the West to adopt a clear position against YPG, the PKK’s Syrian branch,” Erdogan said. The YPG is part of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which the Biden administration quickly affirmed its support for.
While he doesn’t outright call for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Erdogan says Turkey and the West must “show the world that there is a democratic and prosperous alternative for Syria’s future.”
The US currently has approximately 900 troops in northeast Syria to occupy oil fields, keeping the vital resource out of Damascus’ hands. The US also maintains crippling economic sanctions on Syria that purposely target the country’s reconstruction effort. Due to the harsh sanctions, food shortages have reached a record high in Syria.
It amazes me after all these years that we cannot figure out who-is-who?
Turkey is not the only side in the conflict to have sought the agreement with militant groups.
At the beginning of the conflict various parties attempted toppling of government by multiple militant groups. Chief among them — Saudi Arabia, US and UAE. Saudi Arabia had a whole infrastructure of militant networks — easily verifiable. Former Saudi Minister of the Interior, Mohammed bin Nayef, ran a “Syria group”, and those militants were mostly Salafi Islamic fundamentalists. US — check out Congressional hearings — supported various “secular” groups, especially Free Syrian Army. We proudly talked of “vetting” the “rebels” and arming them.
This first phase resulted in wholesale -/ well documented killings of civilians, kidnappings on the street (shown on CNN, but considered just “regrettable” part of war. Nusra Front, later HTS is wholly Western supported outfit, with White Helmets, and foreign special forces (documented, information given to US, individuals released. Groups attacked any military garrisons that at the time were not even fighting these groups, not yet.
Second phase was characterized by military finally reacting after groups of militants took over parts of cities.
Third phase came when it became clear that Damascus could not control the entire territory and withdrew from mist borders to center.
US already created Kurdish separatists, YPG in Kobane, even had a parliament and president!
Fourth phase — Russia and Turkey step in. ISIS started consolidating some groups — and hold territory. BOTH started with the process of negotiating with groups. Turkey with groups that were abandoned by former sponsors — such as Free Syrian Army and some Salafists — but CHIEFLY to control BORDER AREAS with Turkey.
With Kurds on both sides of border – smuggling was big business. Oil was sold by militants to Kurds in Turkey, who would supply weapons. Kurds in Turkey were major people smuggling area when ISIS attracted many stupid young people from Europe. Qatar and Turkey mostly used militants to fight Kurds, ISIS. Especially in Afrin, and triangle Jarabulus – Al-Bab and Manbij. Russia opened reconciliation centers — ovet 500 reconciliation agreements were signed with those that were first propped up then abandoned by Saudis . Those that signed up are fighting in Syrian Army, and many are now funded by Damascus to maintain local security and is freeing up military. Turkey, just like Russia — never allow groups to keep their command structure, or uniforms. Turkey has special uniforms for these Syrian fighters under Turkish military control.
When talking about groups that fight WITH HTS— the article HINTS that Turkey is really helping Al-Qaeda. Not true. Groups that still have their commanders — are not under Turkish control.
In Idlib — the only reason HTS survives — is because there are still groups willing to work with them. In fact — US helped HTS by bombing a group in Idlib that was splitting from HTS. HTS then “arrested” the group leaders. All this was published in our media. But our journalist do no real work, So, if HTS goes to ARREST someone, we just assume that HTS must be good — those fighting them, bad.
Turkey offered a masterclass — militants that accepted either Turkish or Russian offers to have another chance – as many were misled before by Saudis lr US. They have proven themselves in fighting ISIS or YPG separatists.
Turkey knows very well that US will not accept Turkish pleas — and stop funding SDF. In reality secessionists YPG. With that — Turkey will know what to do. US cannot later claim Turkey did not offer to stabilize Syria. Today, for nearly two gears now — Turkey and Russia patrol good part of border.
What is Biden going to do? Go to war in Syria to recapture Kobane and Afrin Kurdish areas formerly run by YPG?
Or is Biden interested in Kurds only as mercenary force as needed? Would not be shocking to find out that SDF can playact ISIS, as it mysteriously comes out if sand and retreats under it after attacking somewhere. Keeping ISIS logo alive, after MBS replaced our friendly Saudi MBN IN 2017 and stop funding militants, ISIS included. That, more than poor Kashoggi, is keeping him out of favor.
We can figure out. Our government and its pets in the media do not want us to know. They obscure it as much as they can.
Well said, brother!
That was a CIA front group. The CIA ran those camps, in an agreement with DoD that had the US Army running the Jordanian and Iraqi camps. The Israelis were very active with the CIA in Turkey, though using US passports.
They left Turkey holding the bag, as they shifted to Kurds. They made that shift because the Free Syrian Army was too completely Jihadi, not moderate at all and never had been. A break point came when the guy who met Sen. McCain just over the border into Syria released video just a week or two later showing him eating the raw warm innards of a prisoner he’s just killed on camera.
Turkey could not shift to Kurds, because of its 30-year long terrorist civil war still ongoing with the most powerful key factions of the Kurds. US arms were showing up in Turkey, used against the Turkish Army. Hence, the split.
I think you have summed up the situation quite nicely. The factions which are actively engaged in fighting Da’esh are – Syrian Army, Russia, Iran, Iraqi PMF and the Kurds.
A friendly suggestion to the last word in your reply. I would personally recommend changing “the Kurds,” to “some of the Kurds, who are not supplying Syrian oil to Al Qaeda.”
“The Kurds” are split so many ways there is no accurate count. That is what comes of having a bunch of political movements but no one real country to run as a unifying idea.
There are Kurds in Iran loyal to Iran, and Kurds in Iran who are terrorists. There are two major US-backed Kurdish groups in Iraq, with minor groups shifting among them the US tries to ignore. There are a couple of revolutionary groups of Kurds in Turkey. And in Syria, fragmentation has gone so far that nobody even among the Kurds knows the real divisions.
In fact that is Turkey’s real fear, that anything done “for the Kurds” will feed their now-40-year-long insurgency because nobody can nor will control all those weapons, angry people, and money.
Assad’s position with the Kurds was once to protect them from Turkey, which he eventually did with a semi-autonomy deal he negotiated with Turkey to end a threatened invasion of Syria back in 1999. True he did that at the expense of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, but he made a deal with the rest of the Kurds to leave them alone if they’d leave him alone and stop attacking Turkey. That sort of worked until the West sought to blow up Syria.
Turkey already got it’s reward to attack Armenia with Israeli weapons with impunity….Turkey deserves glassification in the upcoming conflgration being promulgated by the AngliZio west
More starvation as a pillar of our foreign policy.
re: “Primarily, we expect the West to adopt a clear position against YPG, the PKK’s Syrian branch,” Erdogan said.
This is a direct attack by Erdogan on Biden’s new czar of the Middle East and North Africa. Brian McGurk was the chief architect of the YPG terrorist organization, which has been a thorn in US-Turkey relations.
from Joaquin Flores. . .