Conflicts

On Monday, during a press conference, the future tenant of the White House returned to the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.

Donald Trump spoke about Turkey's role in the fall of Bashar al-Assad. According to him, Turkey carried out "an unfriendly takeover" of Syria after the intervention of rebel groups, some of which are supported by Ankara (Turkey's capital). He said: "Turkey is very smart. He's a smart guy, and he's very tenacious," referring to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. And he added that "Turkey had done an unfriendly takeover without many lives being lost. I can say that Assad was a butcher".

Context

As 20 Minutes points out, Turkey has been exercising significant influence over northwestern Syria since 2016, maintaining relations with the (radical) Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), responsible for the fall of the Assad regime.

Last Sunday, the country said it was “ready” to provide military aid if the Islamist rebels, currently at the head of the new Syrian government, requested it. Yasar Güler, the Turkish Minister of Defense, also declared: “we think it's necessary to give them a chance.”

Ankara and Washington, divided

In this context, Ankara and Washington do not share the same positions. On the one hand, Turkey wants to fight the Kurdish separatists of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the People's Protection Units (YPG), a goal also shared by the new Syrian government, which considers the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) a terrorist group. On the other hand, the Biden administration sees this group (SDF) as an essential element in the fight against the jihadists of the Islamic State group in Syria.

The Syrian Democratic Forces are dominated by the People's Protection Units, which Ankara considers an offshoot of the banned PKK. "We have made this known to our American friends. We are waiting for them to reassess their positions," Yasar Güler said.

(MH with Manon Pierre - Source: 20 Minutes - Illustration: Unsplash)