From pariah to power broker – a renewed identity for Damascus

Sarah Birke

• Last Updated: November 06. 2009 9:46PM UAE / November 6. 2009 5:46PM GMT

Bashar Assad, left, the Syrian president receives the Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Presidential Palace in Aleppo in July. AFP

DAMASCUS // As both the United States and Europe look to Turkey to help bridge a divide with the Muslim world, Syria is using its growing relationship with a more moderate Ankara to help shed its pariah image and cement its position as a regional power broker.

Links between the two countries have been raised to a higher profile in recent weeks. Last month, visa requirements were lifted for citizens travelling between the two countries and last week the first session of a new Syrian-Turkish council took place, with steps taken to work together in areas from education to foreign affairs.

Turkey’s refusal to take part in military exercises with Israel also were highly praised by Syria. The first-ever Turkish-Syrian military exercise took place in April.

“A close relationship between Syria and Turkey has helped to rehabilitate the former’s international image as a pariah,” said Philip Robins, reader in Middle East politics at Oxford University. “Today, Syria’s aspiration to be regarded as the top regional Arab power is enhanced by its increasingly close relations with Ankara.”

It is an open question as to how far Turkey can bring Syria to a position other nations like better, but it is having practical effects.

“People are watching,” said Rime Allaf, a Syrian political analyst. “The recent visit of the Saudi Arabian monarch, King Abdullah, to Damascus is likely to have been provoked in part by Syria’s deepening links to Turkey and the Saudis not wanting to be left out.”

The friendship is not an overnight development: ties have been deepening between the two countries for several years, but the tipping point for public awareness came with Turkey’s open support for Arab causes.

Syria was pleased with the stand Turkey took against the Iraq war – by refusing to allow US forces to invade northern Iraq from its territory in 2003 – and its vocal disapproval of Israel’s assault on Gaza at the end of last year.

These stands have let to an explicit warming of feelings towards the former Ottoman enemy, allowing Turkey to play a prominent role in mediating between Syria and Israel last year (until the Gaza war stalled the process) and playing a similar role for Syria in the fallout with Iraq over the bombings in Baghdad in August.

But the relationship is about strong bilateral links too.

“Old bad memories are fading and Syria and Turkey are more aware that they have a lot of shared history and culture,” said Ms Allaf. “Their geographical proximity makes it sensible for them to co-operate too.”

Among Syrians a sense of friendly envy is growing for its northern neighbour. Many Syrians, officials and otherwise, see Turkey as a role model for the kind of society and economy that Syria should aspire to.

“Turkey provides a model for how to be a majority-Muslim country that is also modern and successful which provides a valued alternative to the model provided by Syria’s other big friend in the Islamic world: Iran,” said Helena Cobban, executive director of the Council for the National Interest, a Washington-based organisation advocating for change in US policy towards the Middle East.

The two countries have come far from the situation a decade ago when tensions were running high over Syria’s hosting of members of the Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK. In 1998, Hafez al Assad paved the way for better relations by expelling the PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan from Syria and the countries have, according to sources, since come to an agreement on the Kurdish issue.

However, the major spark was the coming to power of the Recep Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2002. The party followed a “zero problems with the neighbours” policy that led it to improve relations with many Arab countries, not just Syria. It is a position that has been pushed further since Ahmet Davutoglu, widely-admired as an astute foreign affairs strategist, was appointed Turkey’s foreign minister in May.

The advantages are not just for the Syrians.

There are good commercial opportunities for Turkish businesses in Syria, with the trade volume between the two countries currently at US$2 billion (Dh7.2bn) and rapidly rising. Built on strong social roots, the AKP can profit by drawing on Turkish public opinion which widely supports engagement with Syria and the Arab world.

Some see more pragmatic reasons for Ankara, however. “The bottom line for Turkey is making sure that Syria does not return to the support of insurgency or terror groups, notably the Kurdish PKK,” said Mr Robins. “Ankara has tried to incentivise co-operative relations with Damascus by encouraging cross-border trade, investing in high-level diplomatic contacts and latterly encouraging face-to-face relations.”

Recent spats with Israel have shown the potential costs of Turkey’s new alliance. And some surmise that should the US engage fully with Syria, Turkey’s role of mediator will be diminished and with it its friendship with Syria.

“Turkey is far, far too valuable, as Nato’s only majority-Muslim member and a real force in Central Asia, for western nations to try to punish it for being ‘mean’ to Israel,” said Ms Cobban. “Although the AKP leaders are all Islamists they are also genuinely friendly to the West so western nations would be idiotic to try to punish this government.”

Likewise, a potential squeeze by Washington seems out of the question. “Ties between Turkey and Syria are too strong to go back,” said Ms Allaf. “They are strong bilaterally too; they are not just a means to an international end but an end in themselves.”

* The National