The existence of such a people as the Syrian Turkmens who were interested in the events in Syria were able to find out relatively recently, after a Russian bomber was shot down at the Turkish border. Pilots who managed to catapult were shot in the air. One of them died, for some time information about the fate of the second was contradictory. The Syrian Turkmens who shot at the Russians stated that both pilots were killed by them. Later, from reliable sources it became known that the co-pilot was rescued and taken out during the search and rescue operation.
Who are the Syrian Turkmens? What is the position in the current war?
If you delve into the story ...
The first mention of the appearance of the Turkmen and Oghuz tribes in the region dates back to the 9th century. Basically, the settlement of the lands of the Middle East and Asia Minor by the Central Asian people began in the 11th century, when the Seljuks established their rule here with the help of Turkish militias. Under the onslaught of the Mongols, the Seljuk empire fell apart. During the rule of the Ottomans (from the 14th century until 1922), Syrian Turkmens on the lands of modern Syria (Aleppo, Hama, Latakia, Homs, Tartus, Idlib, Jarablus) defended the pilgrims, in accordance with the canons of Muslims who performed Hajj annually. Since then, numerous representatives of this people live in these areas.
During the French occupation, some moved to Damascus.
Seeds of discontent
Before the civil war, about one sixth of Syria's territory was settled by the Turkmens. According to various estimates, their number is about 3 and a half million, of which one and a half million speak their native language. Most religions are Sunnis (the most numerous branch of Islam), there are also Alawites (one of the most mysterious religious Islamic movements).
Mostly representatives of this nationality are engaged in footwear, they own factories in the city of Aleppo, the workers of these enterprises are also Turkmens. Among them are politicians, cultural figures, military men and scientists (in particular, the former Minister of Defense of Syria, Hassan al-Turkmani).
In the 30s, as a result of the assimilation policy pursued by the Syrian government, representatives of this people were deprived of many rights. They did not have the opportunity to unite in circles and parties. They were forbidden to communicate, publish books, study in their native language.
Until a certain time, dissatisfaction with the current government was ripening in their camp.
What preceded the great conflict?
Between 2006 and 2011, drought raged in more than half of Syrian lands. The lack of economic policy has led to desertification of land, loss of crop and livestock. According to the UN and the Red Cross in 2010, about a million people were on the verge of starvation.
The rural population went to cities in large numbers. In the city of Aleppo in 2011, there were 200 thousand refugees. Unemployment was 20%. Political forces disagreeing with the government were outlawed.
Demanding the adoption of socially just decisions, ethno-confessional groups of Sunnis, Alawites, Kurds and Christians united and rose to fight.
Explosion reasons
Sources consider the main reason for the beginning of the Arab Spring to be the ripening and erupted abscess of people's discontent with the authoritarian rule of the incumbent president, corruption in the highest echelons of power, aggravation of religious contradictions, etc.
According to political scientists, the internal problems of Syria have proved to be favorable soil for fueling an external conflict.
"Fire to the wick" brought from the outside.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Nur Malas and Carol Lee, representatives of the US presidential administration held secret negotiations with the Syrian state apparatus for several years to recruit people who were ready to facilitate a military coup and remove the incumbent from office.
Chronicle of protests
A month before the unrest began (at the end of January 2011), the Syrian Revolution extremist organization on Facebook called for an uprising against the power of Bashar al-Assad.
Initially, the anti-government protests were fragmented, right up to the mass rallies that broke out on March 15 in Daraye. The uprising resembled scenarios in Tunisia and Egypt. Soon, the protests turned into a popular full-scale uprising.
Tanks were deployed against the rebels, water and electricity were cut off in particularly rebellious areas, and security forces confiscated food and flour from people.
Government forces besieged the cities of Daraya, Aleppo, Hama Duma, Homs, Latakia and others. Soldiers who refused to shoot at civilians were shot on the spot.
Rebels and army defectors formed combat units that launched an armed company against the government army. So the Free Syrian Army was created . Fierce clashes began throughout the country.
Escalation of violence
The authorities reacted ruthlessly to suppress riots, rumors spread throughout the country about the brutality of the regular army units in relation to residents of the rebellious cities.
EU sanctions were imposed against Syria. But the escalation of the conflict was gaining momentum, the number of victims was growing.
At the turn of 2011-2012, the government began to use artillery and tanks against rebellious people. On December 26th, tanks shoot at houses in Homs.
In some states, protests against the Assad regime are taking place, participants commit massacres in Syrian embassies. The United States and Great Britain both recall their ambassadors from Damascus.
In April 2012, Assad is trying to peacefully resolve the conflict. A truce is being announced in the country, and UN observers are being received.
For the first time in half a century, elections are held on a multi-party basis in Syria, in which the National Unity bloc (Ba'ath Party) wins.
Despite the declared peace, armed clashes continue.
Participation in the confrontation of other countries
Other states are included in the confrontation: financing and arming of the Syrian rebels by the oil monarchies of the Persian Gulf is taking place. Iran advocates for the Syrian government. The Russian Federation supplies Assad with defensive weapons.
In the summer of 2012, Turkey openly enters into conflict: on June 22, a Turkish fighter was shot down over Syrian territory.
The UN and the Red Cross officially recognize the conflict in Syria as a civil war.
Russian help
In March 2015, anti-government forces took control of Syrian cities one by one. In the captured Palmyra, ISIS carried out mass executions, cracking down on 400-450 civilians, supporting soldiers and the government (mainly women).
After ISIS was conducted in the summer of 2015, 60,000 civilians were ousted from operations in Al-Hasaka.
Soon, the number of refugees, according to UN estimates, reached 200 thousand.
In the summer of 2015, the United States discovered evidence of cooperation between Turkish officials and ISIS.
In September, ISIS completely ousted Assad’s troops from Idlib province and seized the last oil field (Jazal), controlled by government forces, at Abu al-Duhur airbase.
Assad appeals to the Russians for help, and on September 30, Russian aircraft began to target the infrastructure of the militants with targeted attacks. After a week-long sweep of Russian aviation, a victorious large-scale offensive by the Syrian army began, during which government troops regained control of most of the country.
On whose side are the Syrian Turkmens?
According to the Associated Press, representatives of this people were among the first to support an armed rebellion against the incumbent, with the assistance and assistance of Ankara.
In 2012, the Syrian Turkmens create their own army, numbering more than 10 thousand people. The armed forces are deployed in several regions of Iraq and Syria. Militias wage war against President Assad and the IS factions. From reliable sources it is known that special forces instructors from the patronizing power were engaged in training the militants of their brigades.
Syrian Turkmens and Turkey
After the outbreak of civil war in Syria, the situation of the people in the country deteriorated significantly. He found himself face to face with serious opponents: the army of Bashar al-Assad, the radical fundamentalists of the Islamic State and Kurdish groups. Ankara acted as a patron. Syrian Turkmens and Turkey - what is the connection? Representatives of this nationality, living in Syria and Iraq, are closely related to the people living in Turkey, which agrees to support them in every possible way in exchange for the obligation to move in the wake of a favorable policy.
It is clear that Ankara is not so much concerned about the problems of the people oppressed in Syria, but about its own interests - political and economic.
With the help of Turkmen troops, the necessary counterweight to Kurdish self-defense is being created on the border. In addition, they are involved in ensuring smuggling with IG. Political scientists do not exclude the possibility that Ankara seeks, by initiating the strengthening of separatist sentiments among the Turkmens, to eventually include the Syrian lands on which they live.
Positioning itself as the defender of the oppressed people, Ankara covers up planned incidents by protecting its interests.
Syrian issue
According to reliable information, Turkey is actively involved in the so-called Syrian issue.
One of the projects to destabilize the "enemy" organized by Ankara is the Syrian Turkmen. For whom are the representatives of this third largest nation in the country fighting? How were they involved in someone else's game? What is in store for him in this game?
Ankara began to help compatriots back in the 90s, when the organization of mutual assistance for the oppressed Bayir-Bujak was created.
In 2011, the “Syrian Turkmen Movement” was also created, the purpose of which is to encourage people to participate in the uprising against Assad.
Several bureaus are being set up in Turkish cities and on the border with fixed “zones of responsibility”: the rebellion in Aleppo is led from the Gazantip office, the rebels in Latakia from Yailadagi, and the rebels in Al-Raqqa from Akjal.
In addition, the "Syrian Democratic Turkmen Movement" controls the activities of the opposition in Syria. Among the planned measures of the organization - the release of the press in their native language, the creation of radio, schools. The goal of the activists is the Turkization of the northern lands of Syria, which in the future may allow us to demand separation, autonomy and accession of lands to a neighboring, "friendly" country.
Syrian Turkmens are creating their own army, actively interacting with rebel gangs. There are currently 14 paramilitary units. They are united in the “Turkmen Mountain Brigade”. The militants of Latakia are commanded by Muhammad Awad; in Aleppo, the military commander of the rebels is Ali Basher.
Although paramilitary groups have been fighting government forces, the Kurdish militia and ISIS since 2012, in August 2015, the leader of the Mejlis officially announced the need to form a Turkmen army in Syria. The army must protect the people from ethnic cleansing carried out by the enemy, expelling them from the inhabited cities. So the cleansing of the Syrian Turkmen by the Kurds in the city of Tell Abyad forced the flight of twenty thousand inhabitants. Assad’s troops also drove them out of Homs, Cancer, and other cities.
The size of the proposed army was determined at 5 thousand people. There are 1 thousand in opposition organizations. Most likely, they should have extradited soldiers from Turkish special forces as militias.
Turkish gambit
I must say that the goals of the Syrian rebels and Ankara are somewhat at odds.
Firstly, the opposition does not accept the Ankara project, which provides for the federalization of the country. Interested intelligence agencies are forced to consider that their wards prefer "united Syria." So, to please the latter, Ankara undertook the creation of the project “Syrian Turkmen Platform”, at the constituent conference of which the rebels were promised all kinds of support. Some Turkish businessmen have already joined the project, having outlined their future participation in the policy of the country freed from Assad.
Secondly, the activity of the Islamic State against which Turkmen groups are fighting is beneficial to Ankara. In fact, having launched an attack on a Russian aircraft in November 2015, Turkey supported the IG. According to reliable data, its public foundations and organizations provide the IG with significant assistance. Ankara controls the strategically important sections of the border that allow oil transit from the IG-controlled regions to Turkey, and from there the transit of goods, weapons and uniforms necessary for the militants is supported.
It is very important for Ankara to control the Turkmen population and maintain anti-government sentiments in it.
In fact, the people are hostage to the foreign policy aggression of Ankara. With her filing, he became a participant in a bloody conflict.
Military attacks on Syrian Turkmens by Assad troops, Kurds and ISIS lead to huge casualties and an increase in the number of refugees among them. Ankara, in this situation, has certain political dividends.
Exaggerating the rumors about the genocide of the Turkmen people, carried out by the Assad clan, allegedly in order to give fertile land to the Alawites, to their co-religionists, Ankara emphasizes its role as the defender of the oppressed kindred people. Thus, the government seeks to enlist the support of its own citizens in the confrontation with the ruling Syrian regime.
The new enemy, which the Syrian Turkmens received from the “easy” filing of neighbors, is Russia. And they have no choice but to fight with her.
What's next?
According to Reuters, from the beginning of the operation in Syria (September 2015), in the framework of assistance to President Assad until the tragic day of the death of a Russian pilot (November 24), Russia bombed the Syrian Turkmens 17 times. According to a representative of the Russian military, in the vicinity of the cities of Kesladshuk, Salma, Gmam, where the majority of the population are representatives of this people, the base of rebel forces fighting against the incumbent president is concentrated, and air strikes managed to destroy bunkers with stored ammunition, command posts, and a factory on which the martyrs' belts were made.
According to journalists, the result of the Russian bombing was a significant number of civilian casualties, thousands of families fled to the border.
On November 24, the Turkish Air Force, on the pretext of violating the border, shot down the Russian SU-24. Representatives of the Russian Defense Ministry deny violation of the border. A bomber fell from her a few kilometers in Syria. From the ground, from the location of the Turkmen group, fired on the catapulted Russian pilots. The commander was killed, the navigator was saved. As a result of mortar shelling of the Mi-8 helicopter, a contract marine was killed.
The day after the incident, the President of the Russian Federation announced the operation against the IS carried out by Russian bombers in Latakia (the place where the bandit formations were concentrated).
The Turkish President said that exclusively peaceful people live in the area and Ankara has an obligation to protect them.
According to Western journalists, after the incident, the bombing of Syrian Turkmens by Russian aviation acquired a massive character. According to witnesses, there has not been such an intensity of airstrikes since the start of the war. Russian aviation in Latakia destroyed the positions of the "Free Syrian Army" and the housing of ordinary citizens.
Military operations forced more than seven thousand people to leave their homes. According to Anadolu, in search of calmer areas in the last days of November last year, more than two thousand representatives of the people fled to the south of the patron country.