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| The Grand Turk |
| Russia-Turkey summit proves Putin is kingmaker in Syria |
| 2019-01-26 |
| [Ahval] If anyone expected much from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Moscow this week, they had reason to feel let down. Talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin did not yield anything of significance on the big issues between the two countries. The Turkish president failed to win an express go-ahead from the Kremlin to set up a security zone in northeast Syria following President Donald Trump’s promised withdrawal of the 2,000 U.S. troops there. Nor was there an announcement about the fate of the rebel-held enclave of Idlib where the Hayat Tahrir as-Sham (HTS), a radical grouping once allied to al Qaeda, has gained ground. What Putin and Erdogan chose to stress instead, during their joint press conference, was the burgeoning cooperation between Turkey and Russia in energy, trade and tourism. Yet even though ventures worth billions such as the TurkStream pipeline to carry gas from Russia across the Black Sea to Turkey, and the Akkuyu nuclear power plant being built by Russian firms in Turkey matter immensely, it is clear that Syria was at the centre of the talks. Erdogan has not given up hope that Russia will ultimately approve a Turkish offensive into Syrian Kurdish-controlled lands east of the River Euphrates. He made the case for it in an op-ed published in the highbrow Moscow daily Kommersant, mirroring an earlier piece he wrote for the New York Times. Russia is not necessarily against such a scenario, but Putin has made it clear that Turkish intervention should happen on Russia’s terms. At the joint press conference, the Russian president acknowledged that Ankara had legitimate security concerns. But then hastened to add that the 1998 agreement signed in Adana by Turkey and Syria charts the way forward. Back then, the Syrian government agreed to outlaw the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as a terrorist organisation, close its camps, stop arming it and expel PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan from its territory. Yet what was once a Syrian concession under threat of all-out war made by Turkey now serves Putin as an argument demanding that Erdogan accept Syrian President Bashar Assad as a partner. Russia’s stance that the Syrian government should take control over the northeast of the country remains firm. If Turkey wants to get rid of the Kurdish forces from Syria, it should coordinate with Damascus. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |