ISTANBUL – As the Kremlin continues to lash out at Turkey over the downing of a Russian jet in late November, the group at the center of that scandal says Russia is sabotaging efforts to resolve the conflict in Syria.
The Syrian Turkmen, Syrian citizens of Turkic heritage whose brigades have been fighting both Syrian government forces and ISIL near the border with Turkey, say Russia’s air strikes in northwestern Syria are just a step away from genocide, as thousands of Turkmen people have been forced to flee.
They refuse to be apologetic about the killing of a Russian pilot on Nov. 24, an incident that has quickly seen Ukraine replaced by Turkey as the Kremlin’s new enemy No. 1, with Russian President Vladimir Putin describing the incident as a war crime and accusing the NATO member of supporting terrorists.
Far from expressing regret over the incident – which has triggered a diplomatic row so dramatic it sparked fears of World War III – Syrian Turkmen leaders say the world should take a closer look at what Russia is doing in Syria. They say Russia’s intervention is not the noble fight against terrorism that the Kremlin portrays it as.
“Russia is targeting the residential areas and headquarters of the moderate opposition forces who first emerged to protect the people from Assad and his militias … They are hitting everyone who is against Assad. Instead of using their influence on Assad to force him towards a political reconciliation, Russians are getting involved in the war only to extend and complicate it more,” said Tarik Sulo Ceviczi, Deputy Chairman of Syria Turkmen National Movement Party.
Even before the Russian plane was shot down in late November, Ankara had expressed growing frustration with Moscow’s bombing of Turkmen villages in northwestern Syria – areas with no ISIL presence. Since Russian air raids were first announced on Sept. 30, at least 17 separate Turkmen locations have been targeted, and one predominantly Turkmen village alone has been hit eight times, according to Reuters.
Ceviczi was indignant that Russia had expressed such outrage over the loss of one Russian life, noting that Russian air strikes had caused irreparable damage to entire Turkmen communities and claimed more than a single life.
“We have lost about 110 lives and there are hundreds of injured people,” he told the Kyiv Post, noting that Russian forces were now trying to “take revenge” on the Turkmen people by increasing strikes along the Turkish border.
He lamented the fact that the Kremlin had equated moderate forces with terrorists and accused Turkish authorities of supporting ISIL.
“How can protecting your own village be a terrorist act? … There is no ISIL or groups supporting ISIL or even affiliated with ISIL in the Turkmen Mountain area. Since they (Russia) are wrong about the warplane they are trying to link Turkey with organizations like ISIL,” he said.
Sinan Ulgen, chairman of the EDAM think tank in Istanbul and a former Turkish diplomat, said Russia’s intervention in Syria had only “increased the risk of a regional spillover.” Rather than coming to the rescue of the Syrian people, Moscow has only impeded the anti-terrorism fight and helped boost Assad’s forces, he said.
“The first outcome of Russia’s military buildup in Syria was the strengthening of the Assad regime. As result the regime has less of an incentive to accept a negotiated solution that would see Assad leave power,” Ulgen told the Kyiv Post. Putin is really playing up the dispute with Turkey, he said, because it may “serve Putin’s interest domestically by creating a new enemy abroad.”
“Otherwise it is difficult to understand why despite an understanding reached with Ankara in the wake of a series of past violations, Moscow would send a plane to test Turkey’s resolve to fully enforce its rules of engagement and protect its airspace,” he said.
The spat has also created more friction between Russia and NATO, already at odds over Russia’s activities in eastern Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, a move that was condemned by Turkish authorities.
On Dec. 7, Russia’s envoy to NATO, Alexander Grushko, warned the alliance against helping Turkey to boost its air defenses, saying such a move would be an “obstacle to the establishment of an international coalition against terrorism,” Russia’s TASS news agency reported.
The statement came on the same day that Turkey’s air force resumed patrols along the border with Syria, a practice that had been halted in the wake of the Nov. 24 scandal, as Turkish authorities feared Russia would shoot down one of their planes in retaliation.
Rather than Russia’s air strikes against the Turkmen being the result of reckless aggression, some Turkmen leaders say something much more sinister is at play: Russia is trying to drive out the Turkmen people on behalf of Assad, whose Alawite sect had traditionally controlled the coastal area where the Turkmen reside.
Abdurrahman Mustafa, head of the Syrian Turkmen Assembly, part of theSyrian National Coalition opposition group backed by the West, said Russia was intentionally targeting civilian areas in an attempt to drive Syrian Turkmen from the land altogether.
According to him, Assad may be plotting to set up his own state in Latakia, meant only for members of the Alawite sect, a Shiite offshoot and Syria’s ruling minority group. In order to do that, he said, the Syrian Turkmen, mostly Sunni Muslims, would have to give up the land – something that is already happening as a result of Russia’s airstrikes.
Ceviczi agreed, saying “about 25,000 of our people have already had to leave their homeland and houses” because of Russia’s intervention – an intervention with which Ukrainians themselves were familiar, he said, condemning the “massacres and interventions done by Russia against the Ukrainian people.”
