Territorial integritiy of Syria

Unfortunately, foreign policy analyzes that are not based on history and geography do not contain sound evaluations. Our topic is Syria. In this article, we will examine Syria from the perspective of history and geography and try to draw useful conclusions for Turkey.

Syria is a country that has ¼ of Turkey's land. Its population is estimated to be ¼ of Turkey, that is, approximately 20 million. 82% of the population is Arab, 8% is Kurdish, 6% is Turkmen, 2% is Armenian, 1% is Circassian and the rest is composed of other elements.

In Syria, the distribution of the population is more important than the population. The majority of the population outside of the capital Damascus, whose population is 1.5 million people, live in the northwest of the country, that is, in the regions adjacent to the Hatay region of Turkey and close to the Mediterranean Sea. On the religious and sectarian map of the country, there are Sunni (74%), Nusayri (12%), Christian (10%), Druze (3%) and a small number of Ismailis, Jafari, Jews and Yezidis. It is estimated that approximately 5 million Syrians are currently living under temporary asylum status in neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, of which 3.5 million are in Turkey.

In history, the name Syria to today's Damascus, Aleppo and Latakia region was given to the Assyrian Empire lands stretching from the Mediterranean to the Zagros mountains by the Ancient Greeks. Syrian territory owes its importance to its position in the triangle of Europe, Egypt and India, and this importance is undoubtedly due to trade. Due to the Middle East geography it is in and being a port opening to the Mediterranean, Syria has been the focus of attention of the great states from the past to the present.

In these lands, until 1922, no unifying geographical name was used with the name Syria, and no state, empire or principality was established in the region with the name Syria. In other words, there was no centralized state in the geography of today's Syria until the current Syrian state was established in 1946.

City-states such as Aleppo and Damascus were initially established in the lands known today as Syria. These sites are under the influence of powerful empires in Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Egypt. After the long domination of the Roman Empire, the Syrian lands were conquered by the Arab-Islamic Empire and Damascus became the capital of this empire. Until the capital moved to Baghdad, perhaps the most brilliant times in the history of Syria were spent in this period. Syria, which lost its feature of being a center when the capital was moved to Baghdad, has been the site of the ongoing wars between the Crusaders, Seljuks and Mongols for a long time. During the reign of Yavuz Sultan Selim, the new power Ottoman Empire annexed the region and Syria was ruled by the Ottomans for nearly 400 years.

After the First World War, the Syrian Federation was established with the merger of the states established in Damascus, Aleppo and Latakia in the 1920s, but the country remained under the French mandate. Finally, Syria declared its independence in 1946 and today's Syrian Arab Republic was established. Syria, which founded the United Arab Republic with Egypt and Yemen in 1958, spent the 1960s and 70s fighting with Israel and lost territory. Hafez Assad, who took over the government in 1970, ruled the country with an authoritarian understanding, and after his death, his son Bashar Assad succeeded him. With the effect of the Arab Spring that started in Tunisia in 2010, civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, and Syria was faced with the intervention of international forces.

We briefly introduced Syria. The following points stand out in this presentation:

• The geography of Syria has attracted the attention of powerful states,
• Syrian territory has been the struggle area of ​​the sovereign powers,
• A strong, centralized state has not been established on Syrian territory,
• We can think of Syria as the unity of Aleppo, Damascus and Latakia regions as it has been in history.
• The Syrian population does not have the characteristics to form a nation, there are religious, sectarian and ethnic differences.

Since Plato, there have been discussions about what the state is and what its elements are. In the end, it has been accepted that at least three elements must come together in order to talk about a state.
Soil; It is a piece of geography with defined borders where a nation manifests its right of sovereignty.
Nation; It is the community of people living in that land and accepting the current sovereignty.
Sovereignty; it is the will to rule the nation living in that piece of land or to be governed by the nation.
You can think of these three elements for the 193 states that are currently members of the United Nations. Because in international law, being a member of the UN is the most objective criterion that determines the legal status of states. In this way, we can find the answer to the question of whether Palestine is a state or the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is a state. We can ask the same question for Syria.
Is Syria a state in its current state? Does it have land, yes, but some of these lands are under the control of internal and external forces other than the legitimate authority. Is there a nation, yes it does, but it is at war with each other and some of its population is outside its territory. Sovereignty Is there a principle, yes, but it is accepted and applied only in certain parts of the country. Currently, there is a state called Syria as a legal status and it is recognized as an independent state by the UN. However, it is very difficult to talk about the "de facto" sovereignty of the Syrian state over its own territory.
Since the civil war that started in 2011, everyone involved in the region has been saying "Let's ensure the territorial integrity of Syria". However, starting from this benevolent discourse, every country that intervenes in Syria's internal affairs is playing the role of protector and creating a sovereignty area for itself in Syria. When we look today, we see that four different countries have created spheres of influence on Syrian territory with their military presence.
- Russia and Iran supporting the Assad regime
- USA supporting Kurdish groups
- Turkey, which supports elements opposed to the regime
It is not possible for all of these countries to come together and reach a common solution for now. As a matter of fact, the desired results from the Astana, Sochi and Geneva processes could not be obtained. Because the interests of each of the foreign power centers we mentioned conflict with the other. In Syria, the Assad regime, which we can define as the center of domestic power, moderate Sunni dissidents, radical Islamist structures and Kurdish groups are trying to maintain their existence in parallel with the policies of international influential players.
Syria is actually living the destiny of its history and geography. As we mentioned, when we look at history and geography, it has not been possible to establish a strong central state in Syria until now. Turkey should definitely consider history and geography while planning its foreign policy regarding Syria in the future. Alternative policies should be developed over a Syria, similar to the post-war structure in Iraq, where the central government has been neutralized in certain regions.