Abstract
In this article, I argue that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan wanted to improve relations with Syria because he wanted Turkey to play a leading role in the Arab world. This role is promoted by the United States which aims at creating an alliance between Turkey and the Arab states to block Russia, China, and Iran from having access to the East Mediterranean or the Indian Ocean. Turkey's reward would be to have access to Arab markets and oil. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was tempted by the United States, Turkey, and conservative Arab regimes to sever his ties with Iran, which he refused to do. Therefore, the former powers supported the Syrian uprising (which started as domestic protests against dictatorship, corruption, and misrule) to topple al-Assad. However, two and half years since the Syrian uprising started, the al-Assad regime seems to be resisting the attempts of his opponents to topple it, which would mean a failure of Erdogan in his political bet and might even lead to his downfall, especially after the eruption of protests against Erdogan throughout Turkey in early June 2013.
Highlights
In this article, I argue that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan wanted to improve relations with Syria because he wanted Turkey to play a leading role in the Arab world
In the 2011 elections, most Alawites and Kurds voted for the Republican People’s Party, the largest opposition party, and the far-right National Movement Party—the former garnering 26 percent of the votes and the latter around 13.2 percent—and the number of members from the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party rose to 36.45 The results showed that the majority in eastern Anatolia were against Erdogan’s party, the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP), a situation that reflected the polarization of Turkish society
The Turkish dream of reintegrating the Middle East through Syria is facing major opposition from the Syrian regime and its supporters. These developments had their repercussions on the Turkish economy, which the AKP had redesigned to be a trading economy based on exports
Summary
As the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the United States found itself a global power without competitors. One way to maintain the upper hand in international politics was to control oil as the major source of energy necessary for the economies of the industrial powers This state of affairs made the United States keen on imposing its hegemony over the oil-rich Middle East.[24] Yet, there was a more important reason for US interest in the region. Chirac had supported Bashar al-Assad’s seizure of power in Syria in 2000, thinking that he could put al-Assad under his tutelage and convince him to withdraw from Lebanon and break his ties with Iran He was to be disappointed.[32] He thought that the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon would isolate the Syrian regime and lead to its collapse, and former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri had worked hard in secret to have the resolution issued.[33] Syria’s reaction to UN Resolution 1559, was to extend the presidency of its Lebanese ally Emile Lahhoud for 3 years and to replace Hariri with another Sunni ally, Omar Karami. On February 14, 2005, Hariri was assassinated, and the West blamed Syria for the act
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