However, Erdogan wants to restore his relationship with the Assad government in Damascus. With Turkey's economy in ruins, it is important to get the Syrian business back, which was the biggest export destination of Turkish goods before 2011.
In mid-summer 2024, Turkey fought several battles against their former ally, the Idlib terrorists, in the Kilic Valley south of Kessab in the north Latakia countryside. Turkey wants to cut ties with the terrorists there but is taking faltering steps in the process, perhaps in consideration of the civilians who are in the middle.
President Assad of Syria has asked Turkish occupation forces in Syria to leave before discussion of renewed diplomatic relations. Despite Ankara's rhetoric, the withdrawal has not happened, but the mid-summer battles by Turkey against the terrorists were promising a change in foreign policy.
Idlib is an agricultural province that lies west of the port of Latakia, and the industrial capital of Syria to the east, Aleppo.
Idlib is important because it is a rich olive-growing area, and because it sits on the border with Turkey. In 2011, the first murder victim in Idlib, carried out by the US-supported FSA, was a pharmacist who had been an advocate for secular political values. He was executed and burned along with his pharmacy.
The US-supported FSA were followers of Radical Islam, which is a political ideology, and not a religion or sect, but is followed by some Sunni Muslims. In Saudi Arabia they refer to it as 'Political Islam', and it is the fundamental belief system of the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, and ISIS.
According to Axios, the US has about 900 troops in Syria, of which 100 are tasked with supporting the FSA. The only territory in Syria currently occupied by 'rebels' is Idlib. The Western media refers to Idlib as the "last rebel stronghold", but when you research who controls Idlib, you find it is HTS, which is a Radical Islamic terrorist group. There are no 'opposition rebels' in Syria; only terrorists.
There are about 3 million persons in Idlib, and many are unarmed civilians, such as women, children, and the elderly. These people are used effectively as human shields by the terrorists. For many years, the UN has been warning of a humanitarian disaster in Idlib should it be attacked by Syria or Russia.
The UN, and other Western humanitarian organizations, keep delivering food, medicines, and other supplies to keep the civilians, the 'human shields', alive. All the goods delivered pass through the hands of HTS, and are distributed according to their priorities. People who have complained about the strict Islamic law adhered to by HTS, or the arbitrary arrests, torture, and executions by HTS, do not get their share of the free goods. The undistributed free goods are placed in Julani's shopping mall, Al Hamra Mall, and sold. The UN enables HTS, and the dictator Julani, to keep the civilians under lock and key, and without a voice to complain.
Humanitarian organizations complained when their warehouses were stormed by the HTS when they offered classes designed for women to gain skills for employment, and the HTS strictly forbids women from attending.
The Turkish-backed SNA held Syrians for ransom on October 14 north of Aleppo. These were Syrians who had been living in Lebanon for years and were attempting to return home to flee the Israeli attack on Lebanon.
The SNA set up roadblocks and demanded $100 in ransom from each person they held. 57 were freed after paying the extortion, and the remaining victims who could not pay were being held as hostages in the SNA prisons of al-Bab and Azaz, north of Aleppo.
While the world is watching events in Gaza and Lebanon, perhaps Idlib can be liberated from the terrorist groups holding 3 million as human shields and preventing families and cargo from traveling between Latakia and Aleppo. The terrorists have prevented the full recovery of Aleppo, which was liberated in December 2016 by holding the M4 highway as impassable.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist.
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