Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan warned on Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must initiate a process of sincere political dialogue with the opposition to avoid an escalation of the war in Syria and ‘a further deterioration of the situation’, during a telephone conversation with Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani on the situation after the fall of Aleppo.
In a statement released by his press office and echoed by Turkish media, the Turkish president reportedly conveyed to the Iraqi leader that Ankara will not allow terrorist groups such as the PKK/YPG to take advantage of the situation on the ground to extend their influence over Syria, stressing the importance of Syria’s ‘unity, stability and territorial integrity’ – a point on which Turkey ‘is on the same line as Iraq’.
Erdoğan’s remarks come a day after the Turkish foreign minister, who received his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Ankara, said that the rapid advance of Syrian rebels is clear evidence that the problems that sparked the Syrian civil war remain unresolved and that Assad must reconcile with his own people and start a political dialogue with the opposition. Until now, Assad has refused to accept any negotiations with armed groups opposed to the regime, describing them as ‘terrorist groups’.
This intransigence on the part of the Syrian dictator could, however, come at a cost. Several sources report that the Syrian regime is having major problems to recruit new forces to cope with the rebel offensive, despite offering salaries to new recruits equivalent to 4-5 times the salary of an average civil servant.
Recruitment problems are not only occurring in areas of Syria still under regime control but with a Sunni majority – and therefore more favourable to rebels – but also in regions where the Alawite minority predominates, such as Latakia and Tartus, which is forcing the Assad government to decree forced recruitments to be sent to the front lines.
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Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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