Assad's Audacity Towards Turkey: Assad Is Not A Leader Capable Of Making Historic Decisions
16 February 2013
By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed
The Syrian regime has returned once more to the
practice of using car bombs against its opponents.
This time it has dared to do so along its borders with
Turkey, sending a new message that it feels confident
and will not hesitate to intimidate and threaten even
its huge northern neighbor. There is a sense of
confidence that Ankara will not engage in a war with
the Syrian regime, after it has adopted a policy of
caution for more than a year and a half.
The explosion at Bab al-Hawa a few days ago targeted
Syrian opposition figures and killed at least 14
people, including Turks. It was clearly orchestrated
by the Assad regime, with the Syrian information
minister threatening Turkey two days before the
explosion.
The irony here is that Turkish prime minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan was the first to condemn the brutality
of the Assad regime at the beginning of the
revolution-around two years ago-before the rebels
resorted to arms. At the time, the Turkish leader was
viewed as a hero by many Syrians and Arabs because he
stood against Assad's violence. But after
confrontations escalated, the brutality of the regime
increased, and the number of those killed by the
regime-mostly civilians-became more alarming, Ankara's
voice was dampened and limited to verbal protests.
Since then, a year and a half later, the Assad regime
has dared to defy its northern neighbor on several
occasions, either verbally or through acts of murder,
as was the case a few days ago.
Syria's land area is little more than a quarter of its
huge Turkish neighbor. The Ottomans ruled Syria, their
Arab gate, for centuries as a subordinate state. Yet
by the end of World War I they had withdrawn after the
establishment of Turkey. However, the fear of the
Turkish neighbor remained prominent in the minds of
the Syrian leaders that successively ruled Damascus.
Hafez al-Assad was the most recent Syrian ruler to
feel the heat of Turkish threats in the 1990s, when he
saw Turkish tanks approaching the Bab al-Hawa border.
He immediately sought to cease the activities of the
armed Kurdish-Turkish opposition, and handed over its
leader Abdullah Öcalan.
Another irony is that the ice of this frosty
relationship did not melt until the era of President
Bashar and Prime Minister Erdogan. The latter extended
his hand and tried to assimilate his Arab neighbor
with modern ideas and serious economic and political
projects. The problem was that Bashar Assad, who is
famed for his policy of playing on multiple strings,
reached a dead end with all the countries he tried to
outfox. Qatar, which was once one of his main allies,
was the last of the countries to sever relations. As
many remember, the Turkish prime minister attempted
out of loyalty to extend a lifeline to Assad at the
beginning of the revolution, to help him emerge from
the crisis. Assad, however, turned his back on the
Turks. And although Turkey repeatedly warned Assad
against armed violence, its government then decided to
retreat and remain neutral, apart from providing
humanitarian aid to refugees and overlooking some of
the Syrian rebel's activities, especially after they
seized two border crossings and vast areas in northern
Syria.
It is clear that at the beginning, Erdogan sincerely
attempted to help Syria and the regime avoid the
tragedy we are witnessing today. But Assad is not a
leader capable of making historic decisions, and this
is how the country has descended into civil war. It is
clear that Assad's plan is based on an acknowledgement
of defeat. He will drag the Iranian and Iraqi regimes
behind him as he withdraws to the coast and
establishes his state there, leaving chaos and jihadi
extremists behind him. He is benefitting from Turkey's
refusal to interfere as he sows problems for the next
ten years, inciting sectarian strife in northern,
eastern, and western Syria. He will retreat towards
the Mediterranean Sea to the home of the Alawites ?
the sect that he has taken hostage and implicated in
his crimes against the Syrian people.
Al
Rashed is the general manager of Al -Arabiya
television. He is also the former editor-in-chief of
Asharq Al- Awsat, and the leading Arabic weekly
magazine, Al Majalla. He is also a senior Columnist in
the daily newspapers of Al Madina and Al Bilad. He is
a US post-graduate degree in mass communications. He
has been a guest on many TV current affairs programs.
He is currently based in Dubai.
©
EsinIslam.Com
Add Comments