Turkish intervention in Syria, the historical ambitions and the Turkish interior problems
Istanbul – North-Press Agency
Samer al-Taha
The objectives of the Turkish intervention in Syria vary between goals related to the confrontation of the political crisis and the Turkish interior problems, where the Turkish president Recep Erdogan and his government face, passing through the goal to eliminate the experiment of the Autonomous Administration in North and East of Syria, reaching to long-term aspirations by expanding the area of Adana Agreement and the attempts for Turkish historical ambitions in Syria.
As Turkish president Erdogan has justified the military invasion against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeastern Syria, on October 9, as it is based on the agreement signed between the former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad and the Turkish regime in 1998.
In a statement to North-Press, the general coordinator for the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change NCC, (a Syrian bloc consisting of 13 left-wing political parties and independent political and youth activists, known as the Syrian interior opposition), Hassan Abdel Azim, said that despite all the justifications of the Turkish intervention in Syria, this does not negate the presence of its ambitions on the Syrian territories. He added that the goals of the Turkish intervention in Syria are many, first of which is the prevention of establishing a Kurdish federal status beginning from the Syrian-Iraqi borders in the east to north of latakia in the west, the second is supporting the Syrian opposition groups, while the third goal is establishing a "safe zone" on its southern borders in a depth of 32 km inside the Syrian territories.
"Turkey has carried out military operations in Syria with the aim of expanding the depth of the granted area by Adana Agreement with Hafez al-Assad in 1998, in order to be allowed to intervene militarily and pursue the Kurdish organizations,” Hassan Abdel Azim said.
In October 2019, Erdogan said, according to Yeni Şafak newspaper, that Turkey's forces "are not in Syria in call by the (Syrian) government, but on the basis of Adana Agreement.”
In January 2019, and in an official statement, the Syrian government said that it is ready to revive the agreement if Turkey withdraws its forces from Syria and stops supporting the opposition's armed groups, and stressed that "it still abides by this agreement and the agreement related to combating terrorism in all its forms by the two states."
The fourth goal is investing in the intervention of the Syrian crisis and ways for solution by the Turkish government and its president, in order to face the sharp interior crisis in Turkey, and also to improve its tensioned relations with the Arab countries, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, due to its intervention in Syria, Libya and Iraq, according to Hassan Abdel Azim.
Regarding Sochi Agreement and especially Idlib, Turkey is keen to maintain its commercial, economic and political relations with the Russian Federation, and it is keen to obtain the modern Russian weapons, which it has obtained some of them before, "it carries out its threats by launching a large battle against the Syrian government forces and their allies,” as Abdel Azim said.
On Tuesday, the Turkish president Erdogan said that he had offered the exchange of running the oil fields in Deir ez-Zor in northeastern Syria for the Russian president Vladimir Putin.
In statements while coming back from Brussels, Erdogan added that, "I suggested to Mr. Putin that if he provided the economic support, we can repair the infrastructure by extracting the oil, and we can help the devastated Syria to revive.”