Syrian rebels have shown Turkey their plan to attack the regime of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after he repeatedly rejected Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoganʼs proposals for a political exit from the military impasse.
Reuters writes about this with reference to sources.
The government of Turkish President Erdogan, who struck a deal with Russia in 2020 to de-escalate hostilities in northwestern Syria, has long opposed the rebel offensive, fearing it would lead to a new wave of Syrian refugees.
Therefore, Ankara conveyed the following message to Damascus: "This path has not worked for years, so try another one, ours. You donʼt have to do anything, just donʼt interfere". Turkey wanted to normalize relations with Syria in exchange for the Assad regime keeping Kurdish forces away from the Turkish border and repatriating at least some Syrian refugees.
The leader of the internationally recognized Syrian opposition abroad, Hadi Al-Bahra, said that last week the opposition military group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Syrian National Army (SNA) "limited" their joint planning ahead of the operation and agreed to "achieve cooperation and not to conflict with each other." According to him, the Turkish military saw what the armed groups were doing and discussing.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan confirmed that Erdoganʼs efforts in recent months to establish communication with Assad had failed and Turkey "knew something was going to happen." At the same time, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nuh Yilmaz said that Ankara was not behind the offensive and did not give its consent to it.
What preceded
Since November 27, active clashes between rebels and Syrian troops continued in Syria. The offensive was launched by the Syrian Revolutionary Forces in "response to months of continuous attacks on civilians" by the Assad regime in Aleppo province.
Already on December 1, the media wrote that the Assadʼs Forces lost control over Aleppo — for the first time since the beginning of the military conflict that began more than ten years ago, and later over the city of Hama — the fifth largest city in the country.
On December 8, the Syrian opposition entered the capital of Syria — Damascus — and declared that it had overthrown the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Russian propagandists say that Assad fled to Moscow.
- Immediately after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assadʼs regime in Syria, the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army took control of the city of Manbij in northern Syria. It was controlled by the US-backed and Kurdish-led forces.
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