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Turkey - Syria Nexus
By Micah Halpern

Wednesday April 13, 2005

I've Been Thinking:

Today's visit of Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to Syria is raising eyebrows in certain diplomatic circles.
The visit also has the United States up in arms because it publicly demonstrates that Turkey is not towing the line on isolating Syria.

Turkey understands what is going on. Turkey is doing what it must do.
Our leaders and diplomats, however, do not realize what is happening.
This visit could very well have positive repercussions.

Turkey, under its current Prime Minister Tayyip Erodgan, is Islamist oriented. In order to keep the government together, some very important and powerful Muslim forces must be wrestled with. This is the very government that refused to allow US airplanes to take off or fly over Turkish air space during the Iraqi War.

But this is what is most important:
Syria and Turkey share a problem - a large Kurdish population.
The Kurds want to carve their own independent state out of parts of Turkey and Syria and Iraq.
Such a move would be interpreted as an act of aggression against Turkey and Turkey will do almost anything to prevent it from happening.

So what is the positive side of a good relationship between Turkey and Syria?
Turkey combines a very strong Western orientation with longstanding democratic institutions and a strong tradition of Muslim values. As such, if allowed, Turkey can easily function as a liaison between Syria and the West. Turkey can be an excellent vehicle to get messages directly from the West into the ear of the Syrians.

A word to the wise: Do not underestimate the power of intermediaries as a method of exerting diplomatic pressure.

4 June 2017 12:14 PM in Thoughts


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