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Turkey Betrays Idlib, Opposition and West

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. (Photo: Gerd Altmann)

Once a promising western Asian state, the current Turkish tyrant regime is now doing its best to drive its country back to the past and to prevent the Turks from flourishing.

A year ago Turkey and Russia entered into an agreement to establish a demilitarized zone in Idlib province, an area considered to be the last bastion of the Syrian opposition. Under the agreement, Ankara and Moscow sought from their allies (rebels and Bashar al Assad) the withdrawal of heavy weapons, the restoration of peaceful life and the start of a political process. But, instead, the international community has witnessed massacres in the countryside. So, what is the reason for this?

According to the UN Report on the Independent International Commission in Syria issued on January 31, 2019, Turkish-backed National Front for Liberation militants and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham refused to leave the front lines from the very beginning and sabotaged the rehabilitation of local authorities and negotiations with Bashar al Assad. The report also confirmed the regime fulfilled its obligations by withdrawing more than a thousand soldiers and a hundred pieces of heavy weapons from the demilitarized zone.

Paulo Pinheiro, Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, on September 11 blamed Ankara-backed radicals for war crimes and indiscriminate shelling of civilian infrastructure and residential neighborhoods.

Sabotage of peace agreements by Turkey has led not only to the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Idlib, but to the total domination of radical forces in the region.

The increasing power of Turkish-backed extremists in Northern Syria completely discredited initiatives of the moderate democratic opposition. The mass purges, arrests, and torture of liberal activists by the Islamists actually cleaned up the local political field, depriving Syria of hope for democratic transformation.

Thus, actions of the Turkish leader have undermined efforts of the international community and the Geneva talks on the establishment of political dialogue.

Ankara preferred to betray democratic values and single-handedly implemented its plan to strengthen its positions in the region. It does not shy away from using all means in its endeavor. Turkey even blackmailed the EU threating to open migration gateways and, thereby, exacerbate the migration crisis in Europe. Turkish authorities have never hidden the fact that they consider the Syrian conflict exclusively in the context of resolving the “Kurdish issue.” Ankara’s racist plan implies the complete erasing of Kurdish identity not only in Turkey, but in Syria too.

Turkey’s Euphrates shield and the Olive branch military operations were conducted in territory historically inhabited by the Kurds and actually eliminated their self-governance. After gaining control of the cantons, the Turks launched ethnic cleansing and arrests of Kurdish political activists. The initiative to establish a so-called safe zone in Northern Syria is actually aimed at achieving the same goals.

Moreover, the Turkish government disburdened itself by pursuing an inhuman policy in Syria’s North which is aimed at the deportation of Syrian refugees to the ruined Idlib province – Ankara is planning to turn Syria’s North into a giant concentration camp for people who are neither welcomed in Turkey nor in Syria.

Thus, the Turks continue to implement their genocidal policies oriented towards Syrian refugees and the Kurds. But the end result will distance Turkey from the West and betray the basis of human rights and exclude the possibility of democratic changes in Syria.

Nonetheless, Turkey was a shining example of an advanced Western Asia state opened for democratic transitions and progress of social institutes. However, the Turkish tyrant regime is doing its best to drive its country back to the past and to prevent the Turks’ from flourishing.

Ahmed AlKhalid

Ahmed is a peer news submitter for Citizen Truth.

1 Comment

  1. Larry Stout September 20, 2019

    Quite right, Ahmed.

    If Ataturk were still with us, he would have the atavistic tyrant Erdogan shot.

    Reply

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