Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

A new age for Turkey-Syria relations

By K Gajendra Singh

Apr 14, 2005

Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer's visit to Damascus, despite United States ambassador to Ankara Eric Edelman's public stand against it, highlights the churning of regional strategic relationships in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse, and more recently the September 11 attacks on the US and its illegal invasion of Iraq.

Sezer's visit this week is a reciprocation of Syrian President Bashar Assad's visit to Ankara in January 2004, the first ever such visit since Syria broke away from Ottoman Turkey after World War I. As recently as 1998, Turkey had threatened to invade Syria unless it expelled Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Marxist Kurdish Workers party (PKK), sheltered by Damascus as a lever against Turkey for its share of Euphrates waters and irredentist claims over Hatay province, which was annexed to Turkey in 1939.

Its patron the Soviet Union having collapsed, Syria expelled Ocalan, who first looked to Russia for asylum, and then to Italy, but was finally nabbed in Kenya and brought in chains to Turkey, where after a trial he was imprisoned.

Today, relations are steadily improving. The historical disputes over Euphrates waters and Hatay province have been put on the back burner, and Ankara has kept quiet on the sale of short-range Russian missiles to Damascus, a deal it would have howled over in the past.

During his visit, Sezer is expected to discuss - apart from blossoming bilateral relations - regional and international issues that have implications for both sides. They aim to step up their dialogue to promote stability and reduce tensions in the region. In this regard, Turkey is pleased that Syria has begun the withdrawal of its forces from Lebanon in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Building on trade
In December 2004, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visited Damascus, where a free trade agreement, which was under negotiation for several years, was signed by Erdogan and his Syrian counterpart Mohammed Naji Otri. "Our links will develop in all fields in the future, especially in trade," Otri said at a joint news conference, while Erdogan said it "shows how far relations have come between the two countries".

A Turkish diplomatic source said that Damascus had withdrawn its reservations on signing the agreement "after a certain accord" was reached on Turkey's sovereignty in the southern province of Hatay, formerly Alexandretta, on which Syria also laid claims.

Otri said "other problems are now forgotten", apparently referring to another key obstacle to a full normalization of relations, ie the sharing of the Euphrates River, which has its sources in Turkey.

"We are in agreement. We want a comprehensive cooperation in the region," said Otri, adding that Erdogan had agreed to increase the flow of water into Syria. Turkey used to blame Syria for not having built enough dams to store water.

The free trade agreement will form the cornerstone of the friendship. Trade between the two countries amounted to US$1 billion dollars in 2003. When this author visited Mardin in southeast Turkey, situated at a height that offers a panoramic view of the north Mesopotamian plains in Syria and Nusaybin, another historic city just bordering Syria, there was considerable illegal trade. The trade agreement and improved relations will help develop the region, which is being revived economically with the construction of power and irrigation projects . It will also help neutralize the Kurdish insurgency in the region.

Since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq , Turkey and Syria have signed a series of economic and security agreements, including one to jointly combat crime and terrorism.

Assad's 2004 visit to Turkey
Assad's landmark visit to Turkey last year took place following many steps to bring the two countries closer, both wanting to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East. Turkey even offered to help Syria make progress with its overtures toward Israel. Later, when Turkey found out about Israeli interference in Kurdish north Iraq, there was a precipitous decline in the almost allied-like relations between Turkey and Israel, which were maintained during the Cold War and even improved in 1990s. Erdogan has repeatedly accused Israel of state terrorism in Gaza.

Bashar Assad, who succeeded his father Hafez Assad five years ago, also took a series of steps to repair relations with Turkey during the visit. "We have moved together from an atmosphere of distrust to one of trust," he said. "We must create stability from a regional atmosphere of instability." Sezer responded that "no time can be lost in replacing the atmosphere of enmity, distrust and instability which unfortunately prevails in our region with one of peace, stability and prosperity". Both countries remain opposed to the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

"We condemn all approaches that pose a threat to Iraq's territorial integrity," Sezer said. Syria and Turkey have a common objective in a stable Iraq. They both have sizeable Kurdish populations and if Iraqi Kurds win political and economic autonomy or independence in the new constitution, it would adversely affect them. The two countries have also demanded that foreign troops leave Iraq as soon as possible.

The US, meanwhile, has accused Syria of everything, including guarding Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, seeking weapons of mass destruction, and encouraging insurgents in Iraq. With support from France, the former colonial power in Syria and Lebanon, the US pushed through Resolution 1559 in the Security Council last November, which required that Syria withdraw its forces from Lebanon and the disarming of Hezbollah in the south, which has support from both Syria and Iran.

Assad announced in Ankara that Damascus would only renounce its weapons of mass destruction programs in tandem with similar dismantling by Israel. It was "natural", Assad said, for his country to defend itself with coordinated disarmament throughout the Middle East. Israel is widely believed to hold a nuclear arsenal, but has never admitted it. And no one ever mentions it in the Western media or at the international nuclear agency in Vienna .

"If Iraq breaks up, we will pay a very heavy bill. It is difficult even to guess what dangers we may encounter," Assad told CNN Turk.

The Iraq invasion and regional cooperation
There are many problems in the region left over from when the Arabs revolted against Sultan Caliph in Istanbul following unfulfilled promises of freedom at the time of World War I. They were betrayed by Western Christian powers. In 1921, when the French government became the mandatory power in Syria and Lebanon, it hurt Syrian interests by taking away its territory and joining it to a Christian-dominated Lebanon .

Turkey's boundaries with Iraq and Syria, which were part of the Ottoman Empire up to 1918, were fixed by the Treaty of Lausanne. Turkey ceded all its claims to these two countries, which were placed under the League of Nations mandates under Britain and France, respectively. Turkey and Britain agreed on the 331 kilometer boundary between Turkey and Iraq by the 1926 Treaty of Angora (Ankara). Turkey's 822 kilometer boundary with Syria was not fixed by Damascus. The Treaty of Lausanne gave the former Ottoman Sanjak (sub-province) of Alexandretta (present-day Hatay province) to Syria, but France agreed in June 1939 to transfer Hatay province to Turkish sovereignty after a hasty referendum, despite strong objections from Syrian leaders.

It has been claimed that the Syrian protests would have been louder if the majority of the Arabs in Hatay were not Alawites. At that time - unlike now, with the ruling elite in Damascus being Alawite, led by Assads - it was the Sunnis, a majority, who were the ruling elite. Syria, which became independent in 1946, did not really reconcile to the loss of the province and its principal towns of Antakya and Iskenderun port (formerly Antioch and Alexandretta).

France gifted Turkey with Alexandretta for Ankara's signing of a non-aggression pact and in the fond hope that Turkey would join England and France against Nazi Germany in World War II. Turkish president Ismet Inonu faithfully implemented the advice of Kemal Ataturk - the founder of the Turkish republic and its first president - given even before the war clouds were on the horizon, not to join a coalition against Britain. But it has also been put differently. By joining Britain, Turkey did not want to be devastated first by the Nazis and then liberated by the Soviet troops. Meanwhile, Antakya (Hatay) remained in Syrian consciousness. Whenever this author visited Syria from Jordan between 1989-92, on all official Syrian maps Hatay appeared as part of Syria, along with the Golan Heights, Syrian territory that was later recovered.

Similarly, Turkey has also not given up its claim over Iraqi Kurdistan. Britain had denied Ataturk's new Turkish republic, the oil-rich Kurdish areas of Mosul and Kirkuk, now in northern Iraq. British forces occupied the area after the armistice, because of its oil reserves around Kirkuk.

But, by constructing a number of dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, including the giant Southeast Anatolia Development Project, Turkey gave itself control over how much of the Euphrates waters flow into Syria and then to Iraq. Still, it is a strategic threat with major political implications. Ankara could withhold water from Syria, which Turkish politicians threatened to do publicly. Or it could flood Syria. Former prime minister Suleiman Demirel even claimed that as Arabs had their oil, Turkey owned the waters of its rivers.

But the main bone of conflict was the sheltering by Syria of Ocalan. A rebellion led by him against the Turkish state since 1984 cost over 35,000 lives, including 5,000 soldiers. To control and neutralize the rebellion, thousands of Kurdish villages were bombed, destroyed, abandoned or relocated. Millions of Kurds were moved to shanty towns in the south and east or migrated westwards. The economy of the region was shattered. With a third of the Turkish army tied up in the southeast, the cost of countering the insurgency at its height amounted to between US$6 billion and $8 billion a year. But Syria was careful. The PKK cadre always entered Turkey from north Iraq and Syrian Kurds were generally not allowed to join the PKK.

Until 1987, Damascus even denied Ocalan's presence in Syria or any support for the PKK. But only when Turkey gave the address of Ocalan's residence in Damascus did the Syrians acknowledge his presence. In July 1987, the two governments signed a security protocol during a state visit by former prime minister Turgut Ozal to Damascus, in which they promised to "obstruct groups engaged in destructive activities directed against one another on their own territory and would not turn a blind eye to them in any way". But the Syrians did not keep that promise, or others made in August 1988, April 1992, November 1993, and April 1994.

It was Syria's way of interlinking Turkish control of Euphrates waters and Syrian sponsorship of the PKK as a pressure point for getting their share of water. In November 1995, Turkey transferred a full division of troops to its border region with Syria. Arab countries Iraq, Egypt and Gulf Cooperation Council members supported the Syrian position and in December 1995 they called on Ankara to reach "a just and acceptable agreement on the sharing of Euphrates waters". But Turkey insisted on Ocalan's extradition from Damascus before discussing the water issue. It also initiated its own water campaign concerning the Orontes River, which begins in Lebanon, passes through Syria and ends up in Hatay, with a "meager" 10% of the river's waters reaching Turkey, but Damascus refused even to discuss this matter, on the plea that Hatay was a part of Syria and thus it was an internal affair of Syria.

Withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon
Syrians are nimble footed. When faced with intense US-led pressure to withdraw its forces from Lebanon following the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, Syria first orchestrated a huge show of support on the streets of Beirut and Damascus to counter US-sponsored street crowds with ready-made tent cities, similar to what took place in Georgia and Ukraine.

Buthaina Shaaban, the Syrian minister for expatriate affairs, said that "the army will be in the Bekaa Valley by the end of March and ... could be back [in Syria] by the end of April". It was a military decision and not a political one, said Walid Mouallem, the Syrian vice minister for foreign affairs. He added, "I imagine that the American pressure on Syria will not end, because every time you fulfill a demand, they bring you another three. It is an open-ended list. What next? We want you to change the color of your eyes?"

Washington will maintain the pressure, because it wants to "change the regime's attitude". But, it has climbed down from the requirement of Resolution 1559 that armed militias, including Hezbollah, disarm after a massive show of support, with over a million people brought into Beirut. It is strange that not only Lebanon but even Iraq now has had armed militias for decades. There are the Kurdish peshmergas, the al-Badr militia, and the Mehdi army of young Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. US double-talk exposes its own double standards and further reduces its already tattered credibility. The US also demanded that Syria not harbor militant Palestinian leaders, which was a doubtful allegation, and end its chemical weapons program, without reciprocal steps from the Israelis. Perhaps in its zeal of promoting democracy, it would want Syria to liberalize its institutions and finally agree to a peace deal with Israel on the latter's terms.

And then there is the Israeli and US opposition to Russian plans to supply short-range missiles to Damascus. It is a ridiculous concern, as Israel flies over Syrian space at will and even buzzes Assad in his Damascus residential palace.

But, like his father Hafiz Assad, called the "Sphinx of Damascus", Bashar Assad will wait and watch and most probably survive. Many US secretaries of state sat on the same Damascene sofa next to Hafez Assad, however Syria remained steadfast in its objectives and adroitly handled the situations. When US President George W Bush leaves the White House, it is quite likely that Bashar will still be in Damascus to wave goodbye to him, just as his father did to the senior George Bush.

K Gajendra Singh, Indian ambassador (retired), served as ambassador to Turkey from August 1992 to April 1996. Prior to that, he served terms as ambassador to Jordan, Romania and Senegal. He is currently chairman of the Foundation for Indo-Turkic Studies. Email: [e-mail]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GD14Ak01.html


Note:

TURKEY: REGIONAL AGENT FOR IMPERIALIST OPERATIONS
Turkey was put center stage by this U.S. plan in two ways: First, Caspian oil would be passing through Turkish territory. Second, in the maneuvering to develop the Ceyhan pipeline, Turkey's government and military has been assigned the task of infiltrating and politically influencing Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan-- the "Newly Independent States" (NIS) that will be producing the oil.

Turkey was chosen for this because it is considered a "reliable ally" of the U.S. and Germany--it is firmly dominated by U.S. and German imperialism and overseen by a fascist military that operates within NATO. In addition, the majority population of Turkey is closely related--by language and culture--to the Turkic peoples of Central Asia, including the peoples of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

For five years, the U.S. has pressured the Caspian regional governments to endorse the Baku-to-Ceyhan route and has pressured the international oil monopolies to finance it. Meanwhile, it has renewed its support for the Turkish government's military and political campaign to suppress the Kurdish people--whose lands in Turkey are designated as the route for the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline.

One of the main reasons that the U.S. attacked Serbia last year was to prevent Turkey from being drawn into the Balkan wars. When Yugoslavia first started to fall apart in the early 1990s, U.S. Secretary of State Baker said, "We don't have a dog in that fight"--meaning that there were no U.S. interests tied up in the fighting between Serbia and Croatia. But Turkey has close ties with Albania--and when the Balkan fighting spread southward into Kosovo, the U.S. got involved--to guarantee that Turkey would not get drawn into a larger war with its neighbors, Greece and Bulgaria. The U.S. wanted Turkey to focus on its assigned task: pacifying Turkish Kurdistan and infiltrating former Soviet Central Asia. [See "U.S. Predators Stalk the Balkans: The imperialist motives behind the NATO war on Yugoslavia," RW #1002, April 18, 1999, RW Online: rwor.org]

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