News & Comment
Turkey Entered North Syria, What’s Next?

News:

Cross-border military operation of Turkey into Northern Syria.

Comment:

As in a cheap movie, where you can easily predict the upcoming scenes, the Syria strategy of the U.S. is of no difference. Back in December 2018, we wrote an article titled “What’s behind the Military Withdrawal of the US from Syria?” in which we pointed out the following:
“As a result of this policy, the weak Syrian regime regained control over almost every region in Syria except the Idlib region were the last remanence of the opposition are present and the Northern region were the Kurds have their semi-autonomous region. The endgame seems nearby. The only obstacles for the unification and resurrection of the Syrian regime is the Syrian opposition and the Kurds in the North.

As for the Kurdish region, the US nurtured them and protected them against Turkey and has used them effectively in fighting the group of Bagdadi and Islamic groups. A military withdrawal of the US will leave them defenceless against, on one hand the Turkish threat and on the other hand Bashar al-Assad who wants to bring all of Syria again under his government control.

This is why the Kurdish leaders felt the heat and immediately launched talks with Damascus for direct and bilateral settlement when they heard about the US withdrawal. So, the Kurds are indirectly forced in to negotiation with the Syrian regime which will ultimately lead in to merging of North Syria into a “unified” Syria. [End Quote]

Today, this has become reality. The US withdrew from the Kurdish region in North Syria and gave green light to Turkey to enter. Which caused the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to merge, out of necessity, into the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Waving the much-cherished Kurdish dream of an autonomous Kurdish state, farewell.

Consequently, the Assad regime gained an additional 70.000 well-trained fighters to its armed forces and at least 30,000 trucks of (US delivered) weapons to its weapon arsenal. In other words; the push of the Turkish army into Northern Syria, effectively strength the brutal Assad regime.

The idea is, that with the withdrawal of the SDF, 2 million Syrian refugees who are currently residing in Turkey will settle in the “safe zone” in North Syria. The question is what will happen next? Who is going to administer this area when the Turkish military eventually go home after they pushed the SDF out? Turkey, or the Syrian regime?

The Turkish President, Erdogan, is clear on this issue. Turkish military presence is temporarily and it will retreat as soon as the SDF withdraw from the planned safe zone area in northern Syria and the Syrian refuges are settled. And Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity will be respected according all the guarantor states including Turkey, Russia and Iran, who are heavily involved with the Syrian crises. "Respecting Syria's territorial integrity, indivisibility, sovereignty and independence, and the end of the intervention of foreign powers in the internal affairs of this country," as the Iranian President Rouhani has put it.

This means that the Turkish military move in North Syria (which has been orchestrated by the US) has strengthen the brutal Syrian Assad-regime by uniting the Kurds with the regime and has taken serious steps to restore the territorial unification of Syria. With other words: “the safe zone” in North Syria will eventually be handed over to the Syrian regime according to the agreement between Turkey, Russia and Iran and in accordance with the Geneva Syrian constitution which is accepted by the US and the UN.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry summarized this, by stating: "This means at the end of the day, the Syrian legitimate government must be handed the ultimate control over all national territory, including control of the border areas with Turkey."

This means the direct acknowledgment of the brutal Syrian regime and cooperation with Bashar Al-Assad and the betrayal of the Syrian people who rose up against the tyrant and the tyrannical system and gave their lives in order to change it.

The Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu confirmed this earlier and said that Turkey and other world powers would consider working with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if he won a democratic election.

Recently, Erdogan said at the Turkey-Serbia Business Forum, when asked whether a future cooperation with the Bashar Al-Assad was possible, he replied, “I won’t speak with him myself, that’s a different issue. Our intelligence services are negotiating with each other.” He added, “We maintain our relations with the regime in Syria through Russia.”

So, the next scenes are, the handover of the “safe zones” to the brutal Syrian regime, an impending attack on Idlib and the introduction and implementation of the Geneva secular Syrian constitution.

Knowing that these are laying ahead of us, are we still going to be deceived again and again, by some foolish and weak propaganda? As Omar ibn Khattab (r.a.) wisely said: I am not a deceiver nor will I allow someone to deceive me!

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Okay Pala
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in The Netherlands