QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Today marks the 24th annual anniversary of the all-security Adana Agreement in 1998 between Turkey and Syria ending, among others, a long dispute over the sanctuary Damascus had given to the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan.
Being a successor state to the decrepit Ottoman Empire, Syria has always had tense and turbulent relations with Turkey emanating, in part, from the then unmarked and porous border with Kurds on both sides of the border being also a dominant issue on table.
In retrospect, the agreement was a breakthrough in the sense it buried alive the probability of a Turkish incursion into Syria.
What is the Adana Agreement?
The Adana Agreement was the culmination of the ‘October Crisis” between the two neighboring countries, i.e. Syria and Turkey.
Ostensibly, the story revolves around the presence of PKK’s leader Abdullah Ocalan in Syria. Besides the problem of the PKK, the Syrian side wanted Turkey to give Syria its share of the Euphrates water.
However, by delving into the core of the problem it could have a more strategic aim whose foundation stone was laid earlier in history.
After a period of bluffing by the Syrian government, then President Hafez al-Assad claimed that Ocalan did no longer exist in Syria, but intelligence clues reported PKK’s leader was still on Syrian soil. Syria then had a 48-hour ultimatum by Turkey to exit Ocalan; otherwise Turkish troops could cross into Syria.
Turkey deployed heavy troops to the border with Syria in Afrin while Turkish aircraft breached Syria’s air space in the Jazira region (a local name referring to cities of northeastern Syria including Qamishli and Derik/al-Malikiyah). Assad this time took the matter seriously.
On October 9, 1998, Ocalan left Syria. His departure was affirmed by intelligence information. Time was suit now for Ankara to sign the agreement.
The agreement was signed with Egyptian and Iranian mediation eleven days after Ocalan had left Syria. This tacitly implies that Ocalan was not the sole case in the “October Crisis.”
While by Article 1, Syria pledged not to permit PKK to endanger the security and territory of Turkey; it recognized the group as a terrorist one in Article 2, which unleashed a crackdown by Syrian security branches on members and supporters of the party.
However, there were still more concessions to be made to the Turks.
While by Annex No. 3 to the agreement Syria relinquished its claim to the Hatay Province (formerly Sanjak of Alexandretta), Annex No. 4 granted Turkey the right to take all necessary security measures inside Syrian territory to a depth of five kilometers to chase members of the PKK in case Syrian security fails its obligations. By early 2000s Sanjak of Alexandretta was omitted from Syrian curricula and PKK became an outlawed party on Syrian soil.
On the surface, Turkey ended the presence of Ocalan in Syria however, more strategically, it had attained formally her long sought aim; Sanjak of Alexandretta.
Within the context of the Syrian crisis which has swept the country since 2011, Turkey has conducted three major cross- border incursions into predominant Kurdish areas in northern Syria.
Surprisingly, the third one – “Operation Peace Spring” – corresponds to the day on which Ocalan had left Syria. By no means, this is not a coincidence; Turkey has always carried its cross-border operations on days symbolic for the Kurds.
Article 4 of the Sochi 2019 understanding between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan which ended hostilities between Turkish forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stipulates: “Both sides [Russia and Turkey] reaffirm the importance of the Adana Agreement. The Russian Federation will facilitate the implementation of the Adana Agreement in the current circumstances.”
To recap, much talk is being said recently about a new version of the Adana Agreement to be signed between Turkey and Syria mediated by Russia to alleviate concerns of the Turkish President, however, alleged Turkish drone strikes against military and civilian targets on the border areas and 53 km deep in Hasakah (an educational center hit by Turkish drone strikes and killed 4 girls) mean that the proposed version could have been signed, or at least agreed upon, if not on the ground in the air.