Erdogan’s adviser: Aleppo must be placed under Turkish administration

Turkish opposition circles ruled out that President Erdogan would meet the Syrian demands, saying that this would happen after the elections and not before.

The following is the English translation from Arabic of the latest article by Turkish career journalist Husni Mahali he published in the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen news site Al-Mayadeen Net:

With the opposition accusing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of not being serious in dealing with the Syrian file and developing an urgent plan for reconciliation with Damascus to return Syrian refugees to their country, Yasin Aktay’s proposal, Erdogan’s advisor, came to confirm the validity of doubts about the latter’s intentions and calculations for Syria.

Aktay, who was a very close friend of the late Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, said, “To ensure the safe return of Syrian refugees to their country, the city of Aleppo must be placed under Turkish administration for a transitional period.”

Aktay pointed out, in his interview with the pro-President Erdogan channel, “Olca”, to:

“the importance of dialogue between Turkey and the Syrian regime.” adding: “everyone knows that the ancient historical city of Aleppo, which is the second largest city in Syria, was under the control of the Free Army, the rebels and the opposition but thanks to the Iranian and Russian support, the Assad regime was able to control it, after carrying out very large massacres, and had it not been for Turkey’s intervention at the time, the regime would have carried out bloody massacres greater than it.”

He added, “Therefore, Turkey must have a role in achieving security in the city and its environs, so that we can return one and a half million, or even two million, refugees to the city voluntarily, which will not be achieved unless a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis is reached with the participation of the people.” Syrian”.

Aktay’s words aroused the interest of the media and social networks, which said that he revealed the true intentions of President Erdogan calling on President Putin to bring him together with President Assad after the recent meeting of the Syrian and Turkish defense ministers in Moscow, in the presence of the Russian defense minister.

Some saw his words as a message from Ankara to the Syrian opposition with all its factions, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS aka al Qaeda Levant aka Nusra Front or Jabhat Nusra), after the information that talked about Ankara’s efforts to convince it of the feasibility of a possible reconciliation with Damascus, which is what this opposition began to do after its leaders met with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu last week.

Journalist Muhammad Ali Gullar recalled “the slogan raised by nationalist circles at the beginning of the Turkish intervention in northern Syria, when they talked about annexing this region to Turkey, as it was part of the map of the National Pact of 1920, and declaring Aleppo the 82nd state of present-day Turkey.”

It seems that Aktay’s statements and the media’s interaction with them will remain the talk of the Turkish street during the next stage, as long as the Syrian file, with all its headings and subheadings, will be the semi-main topic of the upcoming election campaigns, after it has become clear that this file, especially the issue of Syrian refugees in Turkey, will affect the decision of the Turkish voter when he will vote for President Erdogan or his potential rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

This explains why the (Turkish) security authorities raided a gathering center for Syrian refugees in a suburb of Istanbul, whom the Republican People’s Party was preparing to deport to Syria with their consent, and the aforementioned authorities transferred them to an unknown location so that Kilicdaroglu would not meet them before they left Istanbul towards the Syrian border.

All this while betting on information that was reported a while ago about Syrian President Assad’s hesitation in reconciliation with Erdogan before the upcoming elections, which may be in mid-May, at a time when Russian and Gulfies pressures continue on the two sides to achieve this reconciliation as quickly as possible.

Journalist Omar Odamish predicted, “The picture that will gather Erdogan and President Assad will affect the psyche of the voter, as the Turkish president will tell him that reconciliation with Damascus is necessary to eliminate terrorism, by which he means the PKK and its Syrian arm, the People’s Protection Units (SDF), without mentioning the Syrian opposition militants, who are considered terrorists by Damascus.”

Opposition circles ruled out that Erdogan would meet the Syrian demands, and said that this would be after the elections and not before, given that it would constitute a security crisis in northern Syria and the Turkish interior, especially if Ankara failed to convince Jabhat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS – Al Qaeda Levant) of the importance and necessity of this reconciliation, including the war together against the Kurdish militia forces east of the Euphrates, in exchange for advantages and privileges that Turkey recognizes for HTS fighters and leaders, which the media has been talking about its heated dialogue with Washington for some time.

The information talks about Washington increasing its military support for the Kurdish People’s Protection (SDF) Units to face any upcoming war in the region and against the Syrian and Turkish armies in the event of a joint reconciliation.

President Erdogan seeks to justify this reconciliation to his followers and supporters by talking about the need to eliminate terrorism in Turkey and northern Syria, by which he means the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its Syrian arm, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (SDF), which in turn entered the line of domestic politics in Turkey when the co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, the political wing of the PKK, announced the party’s decision to participate in the upcoming elections with its own candidate, which puts the opposition “Nation Alliance” face to face with a new crisis in competition with Erdogan, who may prevail over the opposition candidate unless it has the support of the Kurds.

This calculation did not prevent the Supreme Constitutional Court from considering the issue of banning the activity of the Peoples’ Democratic Party before the end of this week, after it froze 3 days ago the aid provided by the treasury, according to the election law, which orders it to support the electoral campaigns of all political parties that have parliamentary blocs, i.e. at least 20 seats.

All these complex data suggest the next stage in Turkish domestic politics, as long as it is affected by the future of the relationship with Damascus, for many surprises in terms of the Turkish-Syrian relations, which will be under direct influence from Moscow, Tehran and the Gulf capitals represented by Abu Dhabi, which the Turkish media says is ” It is ready to pay billions of dollars to the Syrian and Turkish sides in exchange for their agreement to the final reconciliation, according to its mood and the mood of its allies, who are many and contradictory.”