Let’s hope Erdogan is not too late for Syria this time

Between the start of the revolution on 18 March, 2011, and the country’s liberation on 8 December last year with the fall of the brutal Bashar Al-Assad regime, Syria has suffered from malicious conspiracies and the greed of countries near and far. As soon as the opposition entered Damascus four months ago, the Zionist enemy launched air strikes against all of the Syrian army’s military bases and arms depots, basically destroying its capabilities and making it an easy target. Israel then occupied Jabal Al-Sheikh (Mount Hermon) as well as some border areas in the south.

The guardian of the Syria-Israel border was exactly like his father, Hafez Al-Assad — who sold the Syrian Golan Heights for pennies — duly fled the country. Fearing the new Syrian government, the occupation state has launched a series of raids and attacks on Syrian cities over the past three months. The most serious attack happened two weeks ago, after news circulated about a proposed joint defence agreement between the interim administration of Ahmed Al-Sharaa and Turkiye, and talk of establishing Turkish military bases in Syria. The Zionists went mad, believing that such an agreement would be against its interests in Syria and the entire Middle East, and an advance against its territories of influence in the region.

As soon as Ankara announced the deployment of defence systems in Syria, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar accused Turkiye of “playing a negative role” there and warned President Al-Sharaa that he would pay a heavy price if he “allowed hostile forces” to enter his country and threaten Israel. Yes, he described Turkiye as a “hostile force” and considered it an enemy of his usurping entity, despite the political, diplomatic and trade relations between them.

READ: Israel military cancels planned tourist tours with occupied Syria territories

Following this explicit and open Israeli provocation, the Turkish Foreign Ministry stated that “Israel has become the greatest threat to regional security” and is a “strategic destabiliser, causing chaos and feeding terrorism.” At the same time, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that his country does not want a confrontation with Israel in Syria, thus opening the diplomatic door to resolve the problem with the Zionist entity. Two days ago, reports emerged that Turkish and Israeli officers were holding talks in Azerbaijan, an ally of both. This suggests that matters are heading back toward diplomacy, toward establishing a mechanism to disengage and build a new coordination system to reduce tensions in Syria.

It goes without saying that sovereign states have the right to sign joint defence agreements with other countries.

Such agreements require that one state provide military protection to another state due to shared interests, geographical proximity and other reasons. In fact, the security of Turkiye and Syria is shared, as the political, geographical and military reality is that any Israeli attack on Syria is an attack on Turkiye. Hence, US President Donald Trump advised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resolve his problems with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rationally, as this has nothing to do with current Turkish influence in Syria, but rather with the protective umbrella with which Turkiye has declared it will provide Syria.

Turkiye is dealing militarily with the Syrian situation with great wisdom and tact.

It does not want to deal with it as Russia and Iran did, despite the geographical proximity between the two countries, not to mention their shared religious and historical background. This is simply because it is not prepared to bear the outcome of a decisive military action that could unintentionally result in the loss of many Syrian lives. Turkiye does not want a military confrontation with Israel and has so far preferred to pursue the Syrian issue through diplomatic means. Erdogan spoke about “Reclaiming Diplomacy in a Fragmented World” in his opening speech at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum last Friday. But will diplomacy work against a cruel enemy committing genocide and occupying Palestinian land, threatening all neighbouring countries, and seeking to expand into other countries to achieve its dream of “Greater Israel” from the Nile to the Euphrates?

I believe that Syria needs Turkish military cooperation more than Turkiye needs Syria, and a defence agreement between the two countries must be signed as soon as possible. It is also necessary to build two Turkish military bases in Tadmur (Palmyra) and Aleppo, as they will protect the new Syria, which is exposed to Zionist, Iranian and UAE conspiracies.

I wrote in a previous article that, after Iran and Russia occupied Syria and committed the most heinous crimes against the Syrian people, Turkiye decided to enter northern Syria militarily to protect what remained of the Syrian people. The article was headed “Erdogan is too late”, but let’s hope he will not be too late this time and will not let down the new leadership in Syria and the rest of the Arab states.

READ: Syrian president affirms commitment to dialogue, diplomacy

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.