September 5, 2023 | Foreign Policy
Erdogan Has No Choice but to Reconcile With Assad
The Turkish leader is in a weak position to dictate the terms of what the new normal with Syria will be.
September 5, 2023 | Foreign Policy
Erdogan Has No Choice but to Reconcile With Assad
The Turkish leader is in a weak position to dictate the terms of what the new normal with Syria will be.
Excerpt
“Terrorism in Syria is made in Turkey.” These are the words of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a recent interview with Sky News Arabia, and they are largely representative of the contempt Assad holds for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
For more than a decade, since Syria descended into civil war in 2011, Erdogan was singularly focused on toppling the Syrian dictator—even prioritizing it over Ankara’s commitment to fighting the Islamic State. Now, Russia is trying to push the two leaders to meet and sort out their differences. But doing so won’t be so easy. That’s because Assad has a precondition before any meeting can take place: that all Turkish military forces leave Syria.
Sinan Ciddi is an associate professor of national security studies at Marine Corps University and a nonresident senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @SinanCiddi. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.