The crisis in Syria and the new role of Turkey and Russia

Ancient soldiers. Berlin

Rome [ENA] With an important NATO member, Turkey, involved in an international crisis, the Organization seems to be involved in looking for a new status. In such a delicate phase the question is the role of the European Union. In Syria there is a scenario that could potentially destabilize the entire Middle East: Yemen, Qatar versus Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia versus Iran, Israel versus Palestine, Cyprus, Libya, Algeria etc.

There are two approaches: to consider the Mediterranean as a border to keep closed or to start thinking it as a southern region of the European Union. At the end of the century, the EU plus Russia will have a population decrease of about 70 million, while Africa will exceed one billion inhabitants. Syria is an unresolved issue caused by the absence of global governance. What is the international subject that can block such a situation? Is it possible to govern a globalized world through bilateral relations only? Today there is much talk of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is re-launching a leading role for Turkey in Asia and the Middle East.

The treaty of Lausanne, signed by representatives of Turkey (successor to the Ottoman Empire) on one side and by Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (Yugoslavia) on the other. In the Treaty of Lausanne only Jews, Armenians and Greek Orthodox are recognized). On the other side, the Treaty of Sèvres which was annulled in the course of the Turkish War of 1922 recognized the Kurdish people and a Kurdish identity. The Kurdish question is very complex if one considers that President Turgut Özal was half Kurdish and that a relatively wide part of the Kurdish population in Turkey would like a sort of autonomy. And there’s a group of Kurds supporting the terrorist group PKK.

The Party of the left (HDK), is usually elected by the Kurdish vote. The Kurdish-Syrian militias are the other side of the PKK and are considered by the Turkish government a terrorist militia, despite having earned merit for fighting ISIS. From the Turkish point of view it is a question of national security. 80/85% of Turks agree with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's war operation. The Kurds in Syria are 10% of the population and have a third of the Syrian territory. With the withdrawal of the US, the EU and Italy find themselves in an unusual scenario. Today the Turks feel they have a sort of mission towards other Turkmen communities in Central Asia.

The Europeans did not want to fight ISIS directly and the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia defended Kurdish-inhabited areas in northern Syria and fought the Caliphate . Through almost 30 years of relations with the US the Kurds had a good position. With the withdrawal from Syria, the USA is actually delivering the Middle East to Russia. Russia at this time is the country most considered in the Middle East because it is keeping its promises. Russia will be capitalizing on the results of today's situation. Turkey is the empire that has dominated for over four centuries as far as Morocco. It is a great country born of a great history.

Turcophony makes Turkey a supranational presence. It is a hinged country: a meeting place between Europe and Asia. The rupture that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk made was to secularize the country, established an army along the lines of the German one, etc. Since 1960 Turkey has been a member of the European Union. President Erdogan has repositioned Turkey from the geopolitical point of view with the political ideology of neo- ottomanism, after failing to enter the EU.

Atatürk’s theme of secularism has had to come to terms with a return to Islam. It is always a fault to identify the government of a country with the country itself. The Turkish invasion in Syria could give rise to a very dangerous precedent in the international law and international relations . Kobane which is the symbol of the defeat of ISIS was a Kurdish result. European Union should intervene to mediate in the crisis, creating supranational organism and contact groups .