The Syria-Turkey Conflict and Immigration Issues: An Overview

[Aarti]

Let me start with Syria and Bashar al-Assad.
Bashar al-Assad took over Syria from his father, who ruled Syria in a harsher and more dictatorial way, and initially gave a softer impression. This caused uprisings in Syria and civil war broke out. He tried to emulate his father's tactics but remained softer. An example of this is his father's killing of nearly 40,000 opponents of Islam in 1982.
after that, his father Hafez al-Assad continued his oppressive and dictatorial attitude. however, the most important distinction between Hafez and Bashar is the environment in which they grew up. while Hafez was a soldier in the Middle East during a time of coups and civil unrest, Bashar studied medicine in the United Kingdom with his father's money. On the one hand, Hafez al-Assad, a soldier who was trained to kill, and on the other hand, Bashar al-Assad, a doctor who was trained to heal.
It was expected that Hafez's son, Basil al-Assad, would take over, but after Basil's death in a traffic accident in 1994, Bashar became the head of Syria. but his uncle Rifaat al-Assad was not satisfied with this situation and wanted to stage a coup. his uncle was busy at that time to put pressure on Sunni Muslims. the coup attempt failed because the generals were loyal to Hafez al-Assad.

In 2000, Hafez al-Assad died and was replaced by Bashar al-Assad.
Bashar al-Assad was softer and more moderate than his father. when Hafez al-Assad died, the Alawites were in a very superior position in Syria. There was civil unrest because the majority of the country was Sunni Muslims, but the state was controlled by the Nusayris. Minorities thrived in Syria for years, while the majority became impoverished. but they had no right to revolt under the dictatorial regime. when Bashar al-Assad took office, he believed that absolute power would be through beauty, not force.
After all, he was more modern than his father and had studied abroad. that's why he released the opposition from prison. he abolished the censorship law. he freed the internet. he wanted to break down sectarian perceptions by marrying a Sunni woman.
Bashar al-Assad really wanted to change Syria. besides domestic policy, he started to reform foreign policy. firstly, he renewed the oil line between them and Iraq (despite the UN sanctions). This helped the economy recover. everything was going well until 11 September.

after September 11, when the US invaded Afghanistan and declared, "either you are with us or you are against us," Syria started to worry. Being included in the list of countries that support terrorism was what really scared Syria.
İn 2003, the US invaded Iraq and Syria became a neighbour of the US ? Bashar, caught between Israel and the Bush administration that supported Israel, had to revert to his father's oppressive methods. during this period, he tried not to be alone by improving his relations with Iran. he supported Hisbullah and Hamas.
Bashar al-Assad also got closer to Turkey because Turkey was strongly opposed to the US invasion of Iraq at that time. when we look at the history of Turkey and Syria, we can see that the two countries, which have the same destiny.Historically Turkey and Syria had been close to war. Hafez al-Assad's support for the PKK

In 2005, Syria was influential in Lebanon, but the Lebanese prime minister, who was hostile to Syria, was assassinated. Assad then withdrew his troops from Lebanon. Iran gave the biggest support to Syria during this period.

since turkey's foreign policy is 0 "quarrel with neighbours", relations between syria and turkey have improved even more. in 2008 turkey even acted as an intermediary in the peace talks between syria and israel. but in 2009 there was a rupture between turkey and israel. erdogan and bashar al-assad became closer to each other. the two countries organised joint military exercises and held a big meeting in Damascus in order to make Israel cry.

But in March 2011, with the Arab Spring, uprisings broke out across the country. Assad led the army against civilians, and thousands of opposition members were killed, including by chemical weapons. the US condemned this behaviour of al-Assad and said that sanctions were on the way. the uprisings soon turned into a civil war. In August 2011, Barack Obama said that Assad had lost his legitimacy and should step down. This made Bashar al-Assad angry even more and he did not want to end up like Qaddafi or Saddam.

this civil war affected turkey even more than syria. millions of syrian refugees (initially 5 million, now around 20 million) settled in turkey, significantly altering its demographic structure (we are not arab or european; we are of asian origin): there are more syrians than Turks in hospitals. Crimes such as harassment, rape, looting, extortion, beheading, and murder, which had not been common in Turkey for centuries, suddenly became prevalent. a Turkish citizen had to spend 500 dollars of their average tax per year to syrian refugees. but now the public does not like them and wants them to leave the country.
in fact, the main reason why many syrian refugees in turkey do not return to their country is their military service. at the moment there is no civil war like in 2011 because of the current ceasefire. every year Assad declares an amnesty and calls his citizens back to their country. the turkish government is now starting to deport fugitives.

Today, according to the Assad regime, Turkey is an occupying nation in Syria, but according to us(Turkey), Syria is a home of terrorist organisations who war against Turkey. Since 2019, we have been trying to eliminate these terrorist organisations. Because we have had no interest in the borders of any country except our own since the National Pact of February 1920.