As Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) tries to grow its national military after the takeover of the country in December, it was inevitable that Turkey, a heavy backer of the HTS during its offensives last year, would end up playing a big role.
Syria and Turkey have now signed a defense deal which will see Turkey provide training and coordination help, along with helping them acquire certain types of arms and weapons systems.
None of that is a shock, rather the big news may be what’s not in this deal. Though it had been widely speculated, this deal does not include Turkey establishing any military bases inside Syrian territory. Rather, the deal will likely see Turkish forces inside three major Syrian military bases, but not establishing bases of their own.
Turkish FM Hakan Fidan, Syrian FM Asaad al-Shaibani, DM Murhaf Abu Kasra and GIS Head Hussein Salama | Image from Turkish MFA’s X Account
Turkey has been keen to expand military presence into Syria for awhile now, notably back in April when they were planning to take over the T4 air base in Tadmur, though now it seems that it is being put off until later, and potentially only as a training operation.
Turkey is presenting this cooperation as including helping the Islamist HTS fend off ISIS, which is continuing to try to reassert its presence in the country’s east. Sources were quoted as saying Turkey won’t interfere with Syria’s integration with the Kurdish SDF, though suggested they would provide “indirect support” to HTS operations against the SDF.
Turkey has been backing various factions in operations against the SDF for years, and just yesterday Turkish FM Hakan Fidan warned the Kurds against becoming Israeli pawns, saying Turkey would not tolerate that.
They also criticized Israel for chaos along the Syria-Israel border, and even suggested Israel was the reason for the recent massacres in Suwayda Governorate. Though Israel’s invasion of Syria concurrent with the regime change was definitely destabilizing, these comments likely are built more around the ongoing Turkey-Israel rivalry in the region than any specific new issues related to that ongoing incursion.
