Turkmen Terzi
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi hosted his Russian and Turkish counterparts on Tuesday in Tehran for the 7th Trilateral Astana Summit Meeting to discuss the latest developments in Syria. This week’s summit received more attention than previous gatherings as this was Russian President Vladimir Putin’s second foreign trip beyond the former Soviet Union since having launched the Ukraine invasion in February.
Putin’s visit came just days after US President Joe Biden’s four-day trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, which are Iran’s regional foes. Putin took the opportunity to discuss Tehran’s drone sales to Russia with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He also discussed Ukraine’s grain exports through the Black Sea with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who made his long-awaited official visit to Tehran, meeting Putin there.
The three states continue to organise Astana talks for peace in Syria but the irony is that the Syrian conflict remains a direct cause of disagreements between these three states, with all three having direct military involvements in Syria. Turkey targets Syrian President Bashar al-Assad while Moscow and Tehran back the Syrian president. Both the Moscow as well as Tehran governments oppose Erdogan’s new military operation into Syria to target Kurdish armed groups and to create a 30km security zone along the Syrian-Turkish border.
Erdogan’s main agenda during the Tehran meeting was to convince Raisi and Putin of Turkey’s military operation against Kurds in Syria. Support from the US as well as the support of major European states for Kurdish groups in Syria frustrates Erdogan as Turkey sees the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) as offshoots of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The PKK is a Kurdish armed group that has fought against the Turkish state since 1983 to form an autonomous or independent Kurdish state in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeastern region. The group is listed as a terrorist organisation by the US and EU.
Turkey launched three military operations in Syria in August 2016 preventing the unity of Kurdish cantons in Syria along Turkish borders. Turkey is now in control of about 250km of the Syrian border, which includes Syria’s towns of Afrin, al-Bab, Azaz, Jarabulus, Jindires, Rajo, Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn. Russia has been working closely with Turkey who has control over Jihadists in Idlib province, and in exchange Russia allows Ankara room to manoeuvre in taking action against YPG forces in the Afrin region. On the other hand, Russia does not recognise the PYD nor the PKK as terrorist organisations and moreover, Moscow has been pressing for the inclusion of PYD representatives at Syrian peace talks. Khamenei also warned Erdogan to refrain from any military operations against Kurds in Syria and has called for dialogue to solve the issue, Iranian media reported.
Turkish, Russian and Iranian leaders, in their trilateral statement following the seventh Astana format summit for Syria in Tehran, said that they “rejected all attempts to create new realities on the ground … including illegitimate self-rule initiatives” in the war-torn Arab country of Syria. Erdogan, however, continues with plans to take over more Syrian territory with the pretext of preventing Kurdish threats from the Syrian border. Washington, the EU, Russia and Iran are all currently united against Turkey’s new military operation against Kurds in Syria. Erdogan does not want a Northern Iraq type of Kurdish rule in Syria but is opening a way for Kurdish armed groups to complete their self-rule in Syria while he supports jihadists against Assad’s forces.
The Star