What is Turkey after in Syria?

Turkey’s influence on the Anti -Assad Muslim Sunni militia groups and anti- Kurds is fully clear and even if Turkey’s president, Erdogan’s government avoid supporting Tahrir-Al-Shaam openly their recent achievements would have been impossible without Turkey’s support backing them with advanced weapons.

According to Negaheno report the aim of Turkey for supporting the anti -Syrians is not only for weakening Assad but it is also for targeting the Kurdish army that are located in an authoritarian region in the north of Syria on the opposite side of Turkey borders. Erdogan and his party believe that the Kurdish groups of YPG and PYD are branches of the illegal Kurdish group of PKK. Yet, their affiliate YPG and Syria’s Democratic forces (Qasad)are strongly supported by the West for they were fighting with the ISIS remains in the northern provinces of Syria.

Since Turkey fears the minority Kurds’ inclination for more independence it has for years protected this region with its presence with repeated military operations against the Kurds.

What is interesting is that in 2023 Turkey’s president, Erdogan had announced its readiness for getting closer to Assad government in return to a possible joint action against YPG. However, now regarding the recent events it appears that Turkey has refused to have any diplomatic normalization with Damascus and that is why it has shown green light to the attacks conducted by Tahrir-Al-Shaam.

Turkey hopes to distance Kurds in Syria from the border areas and to reduce Iran’s and Hizballah’s presence in Syria and show its abilities to Trump government for defying Iran’s influence in the Middle East.

Ever since the wage of War by Russia against Ukraine in 2022 Turkey has played proficiently with Russia. Although Russia condemned Tahrir-Al-Shaam’s attacks but its reactions were limited to a few air attacks against the rebels that failed to stop their move towards the key and strategic region of Hama.