Turkey escapes forward

The Turkish intervention in northern Syria is not an emergency or an emerging event that occurred in the current stage as a result of the events and the war in Syria since the beginning of the second decade of the third millennium. Since the emergence of the modern Turkish state after the weakness and collapse of the Ottoman Empire, it is not surprising that Turkey lurks in the surrounding neighborhood, especially on the southern side of its borders, and takes advantage of opportunities for intervention and control. From this point of view, the Turkish intervention in north and east Syria implies many motives, the most important of which are:

First, the desire to control part of Syria, and through this part, to penetrate into the region, especially the southern side of Turkey, at the side that includes north Syria and Iraq, since this is the weakest part and shares land borders with them, which are considered suitable frontiers that help ease control and direct entry; There is a dream of expansionist colonialism in the minds of Turkish officials since the establishment of the modern Turkish state following the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Turkish officials still look at north Syria and Iraq with a view of condescension out of thinking that the region was at one time under their control and that, in their view, things must go back to the situation they were before.

Secondly, the religious motive and the desire to lead the Islamic world. Most of the neighboring countries adheres to the Islamic religion. Therefore, Turkey sees that controlling the peoples of those countries by exploiting the religious aspect is easy and does not require the use of difficult means and arguments; As long as the Ottoman sultans took advantage of this aspect, why not now is it exploiting this aspect as well.

Through this motive, we find that it imposes its control over many Islamic currents in many Arab countries such as Syria, Egypt, Libya, Palestine and Somalia. What confirms this motive is the direct link between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Muslim Brotherhood party in both Syria and Egypt, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Libyan Government of National Accord, and many other Islamic currents in various Arab countries.

Third, another motive for the Turkish intervention is also the search for new markets for commercial companies and an exit from the economic crisis in Turkey. After Turkey failed to join the European Union and lost hope of benefiting from the financial and economic market located in Europe, it started to think of alternative markets to benefit from raw materials on the one hand, and from the places of discharging commercial goods on the other. It is known that Turkish commercial companies have grown and expanded in the 1990s started looking for new markets to cover the requirements of the growth that took place in them, so it turned its attention to the neighboring countries. Turkey began to take advantage of appropriate opportunities for intervention and control, as this side constitutes a suitable environment for raw materials in addition to being a consumer environment for various industrial materials. And what increases Turkey’s ambitions in this regard is its thought of penetration and reaching the depth of the Arab countries through those existing gaps.

Fourth, hitting any free democratic trend in the region to prevent the extension to the Turkish interior, so it seeks to keep the surrounding region as is, but rather wants to go for the worse so that stability does not occur, at least in the short term, as it is not in its interest for stability to be achieved and peace to be prevailed in the neighboring countries. Since the start of the “Arab Spring” wave, it has realized that this wave is expanding and growing rapidly and will cross borders to other regions and affect many peoples of neighboring countries. Therefore, Turkey’s fears began to increase in anticipation of any revolutionary explosion by the Turkish people to demand change and democracy. It is known that the AKP has begun to monopolize power in Turkey in recent years, and it intends to strike any trend contrary to its own, and uses various methods to win the elections and monopolize power, such as working to falsify results, buy votes in the elections, and fabricate false accusations against the opposition parties and their leaders, and it imprisoned some of the leaders like the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and its president, Selahattin Demirtas; This behavior by the AKP must lead to opposition forces in Turkey standing up to it and rejecting its illegal methods of monopolizing power. Therefore, the Turkish government, headed by AKP, is trying to cut off the opposition’s path by diverting problems outside its borders and distracting the Turkish people and its political forces from internal problems and trying to attack external threats to Turkey’s security.

Fifthly, hitting the Kurdish issue, tightening the noose around and working to eliminate it as much as possible, because of its feeling that the Kurdish issue is no longer an internal problem in any of the countries in which this issue exists, and Turkey, being one of these countries, is trying hard not for the Kurds in Syria to have any role that reinforces the Kurdish position in the Syrian society, especially when it felt that the Kurds had a different position from that of the opposition and the Syrian regime.

It is worth noting that Turkey’s fears began to increase more when the Democratic Autonomous Administration of north and east Syria was formed and the signs of a democratic entity in Syria began to appear on the scene and attract the attention of the Syrian community in other regions as well as attract the attention of the international community to look at this experience and stand on the important achievements it is achieving.

Turkey escapes forward

The Turkish intervention in northern Syria is not an emergency or an emerging event that occurred in the current stage as a result of the events and the war in Syria since the beginning of the second decade of the third millennium. Since the emergence of the modern Turkish state after the weakness and collapse of the Ottoman Empire, it is not surprising that Turkey lurks in the surrounding neighborhood, especially on the southern side of its borders, and takes advantage of opportunities for intervention and control. From this point of view, the Turkish intervention in north and east Syria implies many motives, the most important of which are:

First, the desire to control part of Syria, and through this part, to penetrate into the region, especially the southern side of Turkey, at the side that includes north Syria and Iraq, since this is the weakest part and shares land borders with them, which are considered suitable frontiers that help ease control and direct entry; There is a dream of expansionist colonialism in the minds of Turkish officials since the establishment of the modern Turkish state following the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Turkish officials still look at north Syria and Iraq with a view of condescension out of thinking that the region was at one time under their control and that, in their view, things must go back to the situation they were before.

Secondly, the religious motive and the desire to lead the Islamic world. Most of the neighboring countries adheres to the Islamic religion. Therefore, Turkey sees that controlling the peoples of those countries by exploiting the religious aspect is easy and does not require the use of difficult means and arguments; As long as the Ottoman sultans took advantage of this aspect, why not now is it exploiting this aspect as well.

Through this motive, we find that it imposes its control over many Islamic currents in many Arab countries such as Syria, Egypt, Libya, Palestine and Somalia. What confirms this motive is the direct link between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Muslim Brotherhood party in both Syria and Egypt, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Libyan Government of National Accord, and many other Islamic currents in various Arab countries.

Third, another motive for the Turkish intervention is also the search for new markets for commercial companies and an exit from the economic crisis in Turkey. After Turkey failed to join the European Union and lost hope of benefiting from the financial and economic market located in Europe, it started to think of alternative markets to benefit from raw materials on the one hand, and from the places of discharging commercial goods on the other. It is known that Turkish commercial companies have grown and expanded in the 1990s started looking for new markets to cover the requirements of the growth that took place in them, so it turned its attention to the neighboring countries. Turkey began to take advantage of appropriate opportunities for intervention and control, as this side constitutes a suitable environment for raw materials in addition to being a consumer environment for various industrial materials. And what increases Turkey’s ambitions in this regard is its thought of penetration and reaching the depth of the Arab countries through those existing gaps.

Fourth, hitting any free democratic trend in the region to prevent the extension to the Turkish interior, so it seeks to keep the surrounding region as is, but rather wants to go for the worse so that stability does not occur, at least in the short term, as it is not in its interest for stability to be achieved and peace to be prevailed in the neighboring countries. Since the start of the “Arab Spring” wave, it has realized that this wave is expanding and growing rapidly and will cross borders to other regions and affect many peoples of neighboring countries. Therefore, Turkey’s fears began to increase in anticipation of any revolutionary explosion by the Turkish people to demand change and democracy. It is known that the AKP has begun to monopolize power in Turkey in recent years, and it intends to strike any trend contrary to its own, and uses various methods to win the elections and monopolize power, such as working to falsify results, buy votes in the elections, and fabricate false accusations against the opposition parties and their leaders, and it imprisoned some of the leaders like the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and its president, Selahattin Demirtas; This behavior by the AKP must lead to opposition forces in Turkey standing up to it and rejecting its illegal methods of monopolizing power. Therefore, the Turkish government, headed by AKP, is trying to cut off the opposition’s path by diverting problems outside its borders and distracting the Turkish people and its political forces from internal problems and trying to attack external threats to Turkey’s security.

Fifthly, hitting the Kurdish issue, tightening the noose around and working to eliminate it as much as possible, because of its feeling that the Kurdish issue is no longer an internal problem in any of the countries in which this issue exists, and Turkey, being one of these countries, is trying hard not for the Kurds in Syria to have any role that reinforces the Kurdish position in the Syrian society, especially when it felt that the Kurds had a different position from that of the opposition and the Syrian regime.

It is worth noting that Turkey’s fears began to increase more when the Democratic Autonomous Administration of north and east Syria was formed and the signs of a democratic entity in Syria began to appear on the scene and attract the attention of the Syrian community in other regions as well as attract the attention of the international community to look at this experience and stand on the important achievements it is achieving.