... opportunity to have a significant long-term gain if the Turkish operation is successfully conducted
On August 4, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
declared in a speech
during an opening ceremony that Turkey will launch a military operation in Syria’s terrorist PKK/YPG-occupied eastern Euphrates region. After the official declaration of the upcoming operation, there occurred the question of “how will it affect the bilateral relations between Russia and Turkey?” There will be no negative ...
... cooperation with Russia is a tactical phenomenon that was caused by Western partners’ inability to show solidarity on many occasions and to act against Russia.
Differences over political issues like the fate of Assad’s regime or scope of rights for Kurds may be pushed from the agenda in the mid-term, allowing bilateral cooperation on Syria to be focused on economic matters like reconstruction, trade, energy projects. These are the areas that are important for Russian plans to rebuild Syria and that Turkey can be interested in as well. Still, Turkey would like to keep supporting opposition,...
... dialogue. U.S. support for the Syrian Kurdish polity and long-term plans to retain its own limited military presence in northern Syria are already straining relations between Ankara and Washington. Reluctance to make a compromise on the issue of PYD-led Syrian Kurds may prompt Turkey to seriously consider
military and political cooperation
with Iran in Syria and Iraq.
Yuri Barmin:
The Syrian Congress in Sochi: Too Much Too Soon
However, it is related political issues that may strain relations between the ...
... distinct Aleppo taste to them, which may deter the Syrian opposition from entering into any substantive political talks for the time being. While this may be an acceptable outcome for Ankara that for the time being only seeks a military advance against the Kurds as a way of marketing its victory in Syria for the Turkish public, it is certainly bad news for Russia that bet its prestige on the success of the Sochi Congress.
The unintended consequence of opposition’s low-key representation at the Sochi Congress is arguably a blow to Russia’s position ...
... Gunter:
I would rather underline one more time that the main reason was that the time had just come to stop antagonizing Turkey because the US doesn’t want to lose it. And I need to say that at the same time it’s not a catastrophic disaster for the Syrian Kurds. One thing the U.S. gave to the Syrian Kurds is an enormous amount of weapons and we are not taking them back. We just do not provide them anymore. In addition, Turkey is in no military position to attack, leave alone examine the Kurdish military ...
... from Turkey, Syria and Iran on the young and newly-founded Kurdish “autonomous region” in Syria. The previous countries would fear a quick imitation by the PYD towards independence. Therefore, the KRG move might not be in the short-term interest of Syria’s Kurds, especially at the time being. The PYD might simply stay neutral on the poll event, and not support Erbil. Despite the official Israeli support to the independence of KRG both in public and in private, there are two other regional powers who totally ...
... approach toward the Kurds.
The normalization of Russian-Turkish relations and Turkey’s subsequent operation “Euphrates shield” in northern Syria have upset Moscow’s Syrian equation. From the very beginning of the crisis, the Syrian Kurds were seen by Russia as a mean to weaken jihadists on the battlefield, no matter if it angered Turkey. The rift – although temporary – of the Russian-Turkish partnership in November 2015 led to a new level of military cooperation between ...
... force supporting the coalition and leading the fight against Islamic State. Having refused to intervene directly in Syria, the countries that make up coalition focused for the most part on aerial bombardments, or on supplying weapons to and training the Syrian Kurds. It was on account of the Kurdish part of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a military association formed in October 2015 by followers of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, that Turkey opposed cooperation with them, fighting off their advances with ...
... importantly, they are trying to find common ground to solve the Syrian crisis together. However, it remains to be seen if such policy leads to success due to very different policy choices so far. The key question is whether Moscow will stop its support of the Syrian Kurds in return for Ankara giving up its attempts to overthrow Bashar al-Assad administration. Declaration on unprecedented partnership in defense industry was one of the important points of the summit. The parties also agreed to form a joint military ...
... relations” with Syria. The following day, though, he said that constructive interaction with Damascus is impossible unless Bashar Assad goes. Even so, the signal has come through. The reasons for a change of stance may vary: U.S. support for the Syrian Kurds; awareness of the need to forge relations with Bashar Assad, who has held on to power; the sprouting of a wide spectrum of extremist organizations on the borders and within the country; and isolation from regional projects.
The question is: How ...
