Erdogan supports terrorism and fuels war in Syria

Mustafa Kamel

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ambitions in neighboring Syria have been clearly witnessed since the outbreak of war in 2011. Ankara has trained dissidents from the Syrian army on its soil, provided armed factions loyal to Ankara with weapons and equipment, and encouraged members of these factions to become mercenaries for Erdogan, who sends them to various places in the region in order to fulfill his desires.

Supporting terror

At the beginning of the Syrian crisis in 2011, Ankara pushed for defectors from the Syrian army to receive military training in Turkey, whereupon the birth of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) was announced in July 2011, which was formed under the supervision of Turkish intelligence. Turkey then began to house FSA members, providing them with safe areas and a base to launch attacks against the Syrian army.

Ankara did not stop there; instead it provided full support with arms and equipment to establish pro-Turkish armed factions, in addition to providing a safe haven for Syrian opponents. Turkey hosted the leader of the Free Syrian Army, Colonel Riad al-Assad, and it encouraged reconciliation between splinter factions. Ankara also became increasingly hostile to the policies of the Syrian government, and Erdogan sought to establish a relationship with any government that would remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power.

Turkish support for terrorist groups began to spread to Syria at the time when Jaish al-Fatah (Army of Conquest) appeared, which included many armed Syrian factions affiliated with al-Qaeda in Syria, along with other factions that did not belong to any groups, including Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham, and Faylaq al-Sham (Sham Legion).

Then, when ISIS announced its presence in Syria, Ankara refused to confront its fighters directly despite the continuous threats by the terrorist organization to continue carrying out more operations on Turkish soil.

The magazine Foreign Policy published an article in April 2018 in which it confirmed that when ISIS emerged in Syria and Iraq, about 30,000 armed men crossed Turkey and established the “jihadist highway”, where Turkey became a route for fighters seeking to join the terrorist organization. In addition, Turkey was treating wounded ISIS fighters free of charge in hospitals in southeastern Turkey.

Meanwhile, in his article “The Truth about Turkey’s Role in Syria”, David Phillips explained that Turkey was the main channel for the flow of weapons and money to terrorists, believing that the jihadists’ would inevitably achieve victory, but the Syria’s armed forces were tenacious. Erdogan then decided to strengthen support for his militants, and the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) established the jihadist highway from Şanlıurfa in southeastern Turkey to Raqqa in Syria, assisting 40,000 foreign fighters from more than 100 countries who crossed Turkey to the front lines in Syria.

Invasion

Ankara actually began entering Syrian territory with its military forces on August 24, 2016 as part of Operation Euphrates Shield, claiming to fight in the war against ISIS. Turkey then launched Operation Olive Branch in the Afrin region in northwestern with FSA factions on January 20, 2018; however, this joint operation targeted the Kurdish People’s Protection Forces (YPG). The Turkish Foreign Ministry claimed that it informed the Syrian authorities in Damascus about the details of the Afrin operation in a written statement, but the Syrian Foreign Ministry denied this just a few days after the start of the military operation.

The Afrin region is isolated from the rest of the mainly Kurdish Democratic Federation (Rojava) region and surrounded by areas controlled by Euphrates Shield factions.

Turkey entered the Syria and took control of Afrin with one declared goal: the elimination of the YPG, which Ankara classifies as a terrorist organization. Erdogan’s government has also adopted a firm stance towards anyone who criticizes or protests against Ankara’s operations, arresting around 600 people on charges of spreading terrorist propaganda and glorifying and supporting terrorism.

The main goal of the Turkish invasion is Ankara’s desire to return a section of the Syrian refugees to their homes. In late January 2018, Erdogan told a gathering of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the Turkish city of Bursa that 55% of the people of Afrin are Arabs, while 35% of the Kurds arrived later on, adding that the main goal is to “surrender Afrin to its true owners” and return the 3.5 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey as soon as possible.

Phillips pointed out in his article that Turkey invaded the Kurdish lands east of the Euphrates in October 2019, killing hundreds and displacing many more, including Kurds, Armenians and Christians. The Turkish-backed jihadists committed many atrocities, including mutilating corpses. Meanwhile, Erdogan sought to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin not to attack Idlib, which was the last stronghold of the factions in northwestern Syria.

Loyalty

Erdogan worked hard to support the armed factions in order to implement his plans in the Middle East and gain the militants’ loyalty to him. These factions in northern Syria and Idlib receive full support from Ankara, including weapons, equipment and training. In addition, many mercenaries have been recruited from the ranks of the factions to fight in Libya, where Turkey is supporting the terrorist Government of National Accord (GNA) militias.

The Turkish president has gathered these factions into a unified entity, the Syrian National Army, which follows his instructions and wages his wars. It is made up of various militias under Erdogan’s command, including Faylaq al-Rahman, Levant Front, Sultan Murad Division, Suleyman Shah Brigade, and Mu’tasim Division.