Syria forms new alliances

Pressured by Israel and a suspicious United States, Syria is taking steps to build a loose-knit regional alliance by turning its immediate neighbors from potential enemies into useful allies.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is reversing decades of hostility and mistrust with Turkey, Iraq, and Jordan. With military and economic delegations dispatched to Ankara and Baghdad in the past week, Syria and its neighbors are also preparing for the potential ramifications of a Washington-led drive to unseat Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, analysts say.

Damascus last week inked two landmark military cooperation agreements with Turkey, Syria's northern neighbor. The deal allows both countries to exchange military students and conduct joint military exercises. The two sides are also discussing an agreement to sell unspecified Turkish weapons to Syria and to co-produce defense equipment. "A new era will be opened in the relations between Turkey and Syria with military cooperation," said General Huseyin Kivrikoglu, Turkey's chief of staff.

Syria's support for the Lebanese Hizbullah organization has brought hostile scrutiny from the US. In his Mideast policy speech delivered Monday, President Bush demanded that Syria "must choose the right side in the war on terror by closing terrorist camps and expelling terrorist organizations." In this climate, neutralizing US and Israeli allies in the region is a priority for Damascus. And that includes Turkey, which agreed in 1997 to a military alliance with Israel, Syria's archenemy.

"Damascus has always said that the Turkish-Israeli military agreement was dangerous for Syria and the Arab world," says Mohammed Noureddine, a Turkey specialist at Beirut's Center for Research and Documentation. "But this military agreement just signed by Syria and Turkey removes that threat."

US designs on Iraq also have regional powers working to form a bloc that can influence Iraq's post-Hussein future. Turkey is concerned that Washington may use the Kurds to help remove Saddam Hussein and reward them afterward with autonomy over northern Iraq.

"The agreement with Syria sends a message to Washington, and this message says that any change in the current situation with Iraq and that does not benefit Turkey will be faced by Turkey, Syria, and Iran together," Mr. Noureddine says.

Yet only four years ago, Syria and Turkey were on the brink of war.

Turkey's longstanding anger at Syria's support for the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and its leader Abdullah Ocalan boiled over in the fall of 1998. The PKK had been fighting for an independent Kurdish state in southeast Turkey since 1984. Turkish troops marshaled along the frontier with Syria, and Ankara demanded that Damascus cease its support for the PKK and hand over Mr. Ocalan. Surprisingly, then Syrian President Hafez al-Assad complied immediately. Ocalan was deported – and subsequently captured by Turkish special forces in Kenya – and the PKK training camps in Syria and Lebanon closed down.

Page: 1 | 2