Erdogan stalls and HTS plunders: Turkey looking for a role at Biden table

Mustafa Kamel

The Turkish regime, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is practicing its methods of procrastinating by not implementing the agreement concluded with Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2020 regarding the declaration of a ceasefire, the existence of a demilitarized zone in the Syrian province of Idlib, and the establishment of a safe corridor in specific areas.

Erdogan aims, through this delay, to achieve field gains that enable him to expand his influence in northern Syria before US President-elect Joe Biden assumes power in the United States. This comes at a time when Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) moves about the city with complete freedom, squandering theft and violence.

Constant procrastination

Turkey is trying to consolidate its field presence in “Idlib”, as it moves to expand its economic and social activities from Jarablus, Azaz, and Afrin to Idlib, and imposed dealing in the Turkish lira, and has also worked to introduce services to the areas of Al-Bab, Jarablus and Afrin.

The Erdogan administration is taking advantage of the US decision to remove the name of the Turkestan Islamic Party from the list of terrorism to continue its support for the armed factions, including HTS, to be a Turkish arm in the face of any attempt to liberate Idlib.

In all of the above, Ankara sees power cards added to its balance in northern Syria and is preparing them to be a fait accompli imposed on Biden’s table in order to be part of the prospective formulation of the international policy contract in the latter’s term.

In March 2020, Putin and Erdogan reached a package of decisions to reduce tensions in Idlib, including the declaration of a ceasefire in the region as of March 6, 2020, the establishment of a safe corridor in specific areas, and negotiations between Russia and Turkey around a demilitarized zone in Idlib.

HTS’s continuous looting

On the other hand, HTS loots facilities and buildings, as its operatives dismantled and stole industrial equipment and building sheets of facilities near the areas controlled by the Syrian Arab Army on the Saraqib-Idlib road.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the plundering included the equipment of a poultry farm located in a village west of Saraqib, and stone sawmill equipment in the same area, as well as dismantling tinplate panels built on industrial facilities to sell them for scrap in Idlib markets, while public properties in areas south of Aleppo-Latakia road were destroyed by HTS elements to sell the iron they contain. In addition, several buildings were destroyed in western Idlib near the administrative borders with Hama Governorate.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had previously documented operations of theft by the HTS of metal irrigation lines and digging mechanisms from the Qastoun Dam projects in the Al-Ghab Plain northwest of Hama, as well as dismantling the railways in several areas of Idlib countryside, in addition to dismantling a metal bridge near the town Badama in the western countryside of Idlib.