Alper Coşkun
Türkiye is basking in triumph after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime—and trying to cash in on the moment. The head of Turkish intelligence, Ibrahim Kalın, wasted no time in visiting Damascus, where he was accompanied by Abu Mohammed al-Golani, leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the rebel movement that toppled Assad. This was a trip Türkiye reportedly coordinated with its Western allies and used as an opportunity to convey shared expectations with the new Syrian leadership, representing a semblance of unity in action. Meanwhile, Türkiye’s diplomatic representation in Syria, which had been absent since 2012, quickly resumed its operations—a sign of the fast pace at which the landscape in Damascus is evolving.
With Assad out of the picture, Russian and Iranian influence in decline, and overall dynamics in Syria shifting in its favor, Ankara is upbeat. It sees a historic opportunity to advance its geostrategic interests and gain an advantage over Iran for regional domination, and it is scrambling to position itself for that purpose. Before the latest events, Türkiye’s Syria wish list essentially had three main elements:
- Eradicating the cross-border threat posed by the U.S.-supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), comprised mainly of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and its affiliates in Syria
- Creating the conditions for the return of more than 3 million registered Syrian refugees currently living in Türkiye
- Keeping the upper hand in its unspoken but ever-present rivalry with Iran and Russia
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