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Written by Damir Nazarov
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan gave an interview to the Saudi TV channel Al-Sharq, where he tried to “give a lecture on political science” to the Iranians, and it turned out to be extremely ridiculous. Hakan Fidan tried to “teach” the Iranians what to do in the “new Syria”, and his arguments looked quite naive and stupid.
The Turkish Foreign Minister stumbled again, for the second time. The first time was when, in an interview with a Turkish channel, to the question “Has Israel won in Syria?”, Fidan answered – “It depends on how you look at it“. In short, he acknowledged the fact of the Zionists’ victory. The second blunder of the Turkish Foreign Minister happened now, when he decided to send a message to the Iranians through a Saudi channel, where he began to rant about “new opportunities for the Iranians in Syria”, as well as the rapprochement of interests between Iran and Turkey in this Arab country.
Why did I come to this conclusion? Because earlier Fidan was being clever about Assad’s presence inside the Axis of Resistance, saying that “there is no place for him there.” Yes, it may be true, and the Iranians had no illusions, but they had no alternative to Assad because of Syria’s regional isolation, which the Turks had put a lot of effort into. And now we see that the new Syrian regime has reached rock bottom in its “confrontation with Zionism.” The Turks, the SNA and the HTS clearly did not expect that Zionism would destroy all of Assad’s military equipment in a matter of hours and occupy southern Syria all the way to Damascus. I just want to ask Mr. Fidan: “Is the Tahrir al-Sham regime the same alternative to Assad that you offered the Iranians?”
The sharp Saudi activity in Syria also became the reason why Fidan began to actively invite the Iranians to Syria. Turkey knows very well the capabilities of the Saudis and the treacherous nature of yesterday’s jihadists (HTS), and then there are the problems with the SDF that threaten to turn into a conflict with the collective West and the Zionists. For these reasons, Fidan is “flirting” with Tehran.
Even if we assume that the Turks will secretly assist Iranian developments inside Syria, it is obvious that, first of all, a lot of questions will arise for Ankara. After all, the Iranians are closely monitoring what is happening and clearly see how easily the Turks can “betray” even their brothers (Turkmens) before the new dictatorship (HTS), since, in Ankara’s opinion, it is more profitable to cooperate with the former Al-Qaeda than to feed the SNA groups. In addition, the “friendship” that has begun with the jihadists is a “plan B” for the Turks, but there are no prerequisites for this strategy to be successful. Now imagine if tomorrow the Iranians revive their proxies throughout Syria, for example, in the form of cultural and religious organizations or a political party, what will happen then? The autocracies of the Persian Gulf will allocate billions of dollars to suppress “pro-Iranian parties,” and what will Erdogan’s allies do? It is obvious that they will side with the Arab autocracies, so Hakan Fidan has clearly overestimated his expectations and clearly did not think about what his cooperation with Iran in the “new Syria” would look like. And what would cooperation between the parties look like even without taking into account political issues, if HTS has established a dictatorship for at least 4 years? When we consider the situation in the context of relations between the former Jabhat Nusra and Iran, we should not forget how HTS constantly tries to curry favor with the Zionists when it declares that it “catches weapons smuggling from Iran to Lebanon.” Plus violence against minorities in Syria, reprisals against Sunnis of various categories (former soldiers of SAA, civilians, and even former members of the FSA), rabid sectarian anti-Shiite rhetoric, the lack of unity within their organization and the presence of any adequate ideology, all this and much more makes possible diplomatic relations between Iran and HTS practically impossible. Therefore, Hakan Fidan clearly underestimates the situation and is openly in a hurry to “try on” HTS and the Islamic Republic.
When thinking about the future interaction between Iran and Turkey in the Syrian arena, one can be sure that the parties will come to a consensus, but in what direction and for what reasons? For example, the Iranians always talk about the need to cooperate with all regional powers in the anti-Zionist direction. However, Fidan has already indicated that he sees Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq as allies in this matter. These countries, with the exception of Iraq, are the closest allies of Zionism, the only one missing is Qatar. It is strange that Fidan did not mention the participation of the smallest emirate. That is, what we see here is more disagreement than a step towards each other.
So how do the Turks see the “convergence of interests” with the Iranians? A common view of the fight against ISIS and the PKK. Although even the fight against the self-proclaimed “Rojava” will be measured by Erdogan’s relationship with Trump. I note that as soon as it became clear that the Pentagon would continue to cooperate with the SDF, Fidan declared the “need to cooperate with Iran in Syria.” Ankara is trying to play between the main antagonists of the region, but will this not lead to serious consequences?
Another point of common “interest” is participation in the Chinese Silk Road. Here, everything is more or less clear, since Beijing is the main interested party in the process of maximum rapprochement between Ankara and Tehran, there are no separate merits of the Turks here, and cooperation will extend with an emphasis on the economic sphere under the auspices of China.
In conclusion, I will note that the Turkish approach to Iran in Syria is dictated by the level of Ankara’s dependence on the US and China. If the neocons’ policy is in conflict with Erdogan, Ankara will “blackmail” Washington with its cooperation with the Iranians, but if the Yankees remain neutral, there will be no progress between Turkey and Iran. The situation with China is different, there the Celestial Empire will make maximum use of the Trump administration’s mistakes and force all regional powers to seek a compromise on Syria. Hakan Fidan clearly won’t tell us about these nuances.
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what is this load of crap??? who is this author? he sounds like a 20 year old kid commenting on youtube on a subject he doesn’t understand. this gentleman has certainly forgotten that iran, through its shiite militias, has massacred a lot of muslim syrians, much more than daesh. one of the leaders being soleimani, whom you all know. so the new syrian government will do everything possible to ensure that iran does not interfere in its affairs.
lol turko because of the support, supply and protection from the turks for the terrornest idlib, the saa was not able to finish them once for all. instead of turks and saa together to destroy first the islamists and then the kurd disney fake state rovaja, now islamists rule damascus, kurds stell syrian oil for the us, and zios grab south syria. turks proof to be total strategic morons.
1. the syrian army, which fought your headchopping throatslitting chums for 14 years, was predominantly sunni. 2. syria was a diverse and tolerant society where all faiths and communities could live in peace and security. 3. there is now no “syrian government.” , just a squalid turkish proxy cannibal thug called jewlani who filmed himself beheading children and eating human organs. all the world and his dog are “interfering in syria’s affairs.”
you may not have noticed, but the zios are now illegally occupying the south of the country and grabbing more land every day and stealing syria’s water. the united snakes is occupying the north of the country and stealing syria’s oil and grain. the turks are occupying the rest and stealing everything that isn’t nailed down. any actual syrians there are just told to go home and mind their own business.
turks are so stupid. they think everyone else is just as stupid as them. hare brained myopic idiots
hakan fidan (kurdish origin) is the former head of the turkish secret service. this guy is not just anyone! he could perhaps even become the next president of turkey. since turkey has removed assad and therefore russia and iran from syria everyone is crying. evil mustached turks
türkiye’s goal is its national sovereignty. then what happened with israel in the south is just the result of events. syria is no longer divided as before. the israelis are strengthening their strategic position in the north. the syrian army is too tired and donr’t have the capabilities to fight with israel now. it’s as simple as that, it’s not complicated to understand.
i dont understand why the turks are pretending. they are on the winning side which is the side of the usa and israel and they have allways been every word about palestine from any turkish polititian was allways just lipservice, cheap publicity. and thats ok congratulations you won just stop pretending to be anything different to any other pro us/ isreal nato nation.
turkey’s goal is to grab everything it can, through its terrorist proxies and blackmail and sordid deals. syria has been fragmented into us-, turk- and zio occupied zones, like germany in 1945. the syrian army no longer exists. the syrian state no longer exists. you would have to be high on crack to believe that syria “is no longer divided.”
erdogan just wants to play off both ends against the middle. he is like a man who wants to sit on the fence and milk the cows on both sides of the fence. he takes backstabbing to a new level. erdogan is completely consistent and reliable. you know that he will always stab you in the back at the first opportunity. but he has problems. he wants to wipe out the kurds, which brings him into conflict with the us and the zios. so he wants ….
… iran and russia still involved in syria to play them all off against each other. let me wipe out the kurds or i’ll let iran resupply hezbollah through syria. and russia has to do me favours to keep nato ships out of the black sea. and the eu has to give me billions or i’ll flood them with refugees. but erdogan’s economy is in bad shape. the united snakes has already tried to regime change him. he may get bumped off like the iranian president.
he would be well advised to steer clear of any grassy knolls and avoid helicopter trips.