... could have been prompted by changes in Iran’s relations with other countries, especially its evolving cooperation with China, Russia and Saudi Arabia. If any agreement has been reached (which is currently too early to judge), it would only boost Iran’s ... ... East’s approach to international relations is Turkey’s foreign policy. Particularly important, is Turkey’s position on Syria prior to the presidential elections in May 2023, and the new aspects it has now acquired following the victory of incumbent ...
... especially important for Turkey, given that it is on the eve of its presidential and parliamentary elections, which are to be held in June this year.
Interestingly, President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to solve the problem posed by Syrian Kurds by combining force with the possibility of normalizing relations with Syria. Back in December of last year, he proposed to hold a meeting between the presidents of Russia, Turkey, and Syria. According to Erdogan, this meeting should be after negotiations take place between head Defense Ministers, head Foreign Affairs Ministers, as well as heads of intelligence services of the three countries.
Ivan Bocharov:
Syria: ...
... However, Turkey's ground campaign, as well as continued air strikes against the Kurds, is likely to complicate communication with Syria and hinder any mutual trust forming. This will happen even if Ankara succeeds in obtaining formal permission from Russia and the Syrian government to conduct an operation against the Kurds. According to a statement by Turkish National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, Ankara is currently discussing with Moscow the possibility of using Syria’s airspace to conduct a military operation against Kurdish groups.
However, the Turkish military ...
... activities in the areas of the Turkish operations "Olive Branch" and "Euphrates Shield". At the same time, in the course of the Turkish operation "The Source of Peace" in the fall of 2019, during negotiations between the Russian side and the Syrian Kurds, the latter agreed to Russian proposals to withdraw YPG units from the border strip in northeastern Syria, where Russian-Turkish patrols were supposed to operate. This provision was enshrined in the
Sochi Memorandum
, to which Erdogan referred ...
... Eastern crises and to which extent the interests of Moscow and Tehran overlap or contradict each other. Some of the key issues of the political situation in the region were assessed, such as the situation in Idlib, the prospects for a political process in Syria, Israel’s role in the region’s future, the path to Syria’s reconstruction and the impact of U.S. policies on the emerging new order in the Middle East. Both Russia and the Islamic Republic of Iran regard each other as necessary components of the regional architecture that they envision for the Middle East. The paper attempts to shed light on the views of Moscow and Tehran on these issues.
Russia and Iran ...
... Tools and Strategies for Settlement». This paper is devoted to analyzing the situation in the oil and gas market in Iraq and Syria, as well as the energy policy of Russia in the Arab Mashreq region. The authors also analyze Iraq’s oil prospects in the post-war period under sanctions against Iran. Special attention is paid to the Kurdish factor and the role the Kurds play in the future of energy in the region, the possibility of subregional integration in the Arab Mashreq and the increasing ...
... Russian military police force had inserted itself between the Syrian military and the Turkish observation post. Turkey might find a way out of the situation by withdrawing its observation post from Murak and launching a new operation in the north of Syria against the U.S.-supported Kurds. Given the situation, it is desirable for Russia to find a way of advancing the dialogue between Damascus and the Kurds.
While Ankara supported the Syrian opposition, it undertook under the Sochi agreements to fight terrorism in Idlib and facilitate the opening of the М5 and М4 highways leading ...
... from Washington and Moscow. This comes as Washington and Ankara continue negotiations on a safe zone in northern Syria — talks that have made “important progress” in recent days, according to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Why it matters
Russia believes that both US support for the Kurds and Turkish support for Syrian opposition groups contribute to continued foreign interference in Syria and threaten the unity of the country. Moscow’s official position is that neither Washington nor Ankara have a legal basis for their military presence in Syria. Russia also ...
... 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 repercussion of the operation on Russian-Turkish relations.
Timur Makhmutov, Ruslan Mamedov:
Russia and the Arab Mashreq: The Post-Conflict Period in Syria
The discussions to create a safe zone inside Syria's ...
... common solution and acknowledge their corresponding legitimate interests and concerns. Turkey’s 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,...
