The view from Ankara - World - Al-Ahram Weekly

Al-Ahram Weekly

23-07-2025

Approximately 1000 civilians have been killed and hundreds more injured since the outbreak of the clashes on 13 July in Sweida, south of the Syrian capital, Damascus. This marks one of the deadliest waves of civil strife in Syria since the overthrow of the Bashar Al-Assad regime in December 2024.
On 15 July, the Syrian Interior and Defence Ministries announced that a ceasefire had been reached with 'notables and dignitaries' in the city. However, the agreement quickly broke down, heightening Turkey's anxieties, especially since Israel has seized the opportunity to involve itself directly in the unrest. Israel has been exploiting the Druze minority issue as a means to expand further into southern Syria and justify annexing more territory beyond Syria's occupied Golan Heights.
On 19 July, Ankara called for an immediate halt to the violence in southern Syria and condemned the latest Israeli military strikes. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stressed to his US counterpart the need to bring the fighting in Sweida to an immediate halt, reaffirming Turkey's support for the constructive role played by the US in Syria and its eagerness to help promote a solution to the crisis.
Turkey also demanded that the Netanyahu government should cease its 'provocative' military operations, warning that Israel's continued attacks on Damascus and Sweida would not go unanswered by the international community.
The Turkish parliament last week passed a motion echoing the government's condemnation of Israeli behaviour. Describing the Israeli attacks on the Syrian capital and other parts of the country as another instance of Tel Aviv's disregard for international law, it stated:
'Israel, in blatant violation of the UN Charter and the fundamental principles of international law, is not only openly breaching Syria's territorial integrity but also launching new acts of aggression to distract from the genocide it is perpetrating against the Palestinian people…These attacks are aimed at destabilizing Syria and the wider region. At this critical point, the international community's inexplicable silence and ineffectiveness only embolden Israel's reckless and unlawful behaviour.'
Ankara's stance on the situation in Sweida and Syria in general is informed by various factors, including one of Turkey's foremost concerns: the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which Ankara suspects might take advantage of the disturbances in the south to push for formal autonomy in the Kurdish-controlled region in northeastern Syria. Turkey has cautioned the SDF against meddling in the fragile situation after some reports claimed the SDF had offered to support the Druze factions. Other reports suggest that the Druze have appealed to the Kurdish-led Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) for assistance.
Against this charged political backdrop, the SDF is keen to reinforce its image as a viable political alternative. It has adopted a sympathetic tone towards the Druze while criticising the government's military operations in Sweida and the predominantly Druze suburbs of Damascus, such as Sahnaya and Jaramana.
In May 2025, the Syrian Interior Ministry reported that Syrian government forces had intercepted a shipment of weapons en route from SDF-controlled territory to Sweida, suggesting that the SDF's support for the Druze factions may go beyond rhetoric. The SDF and Druze factions share resentment at being excluded from the National Dialogue Conference and Constitutional Declaration drafting committee, the outputs of which lent further popular and legal legitimation to the current transitional government.
While Damascus reached an agreement, however fraught and fragile, with the SDF in March – with the US pressuring Kurdish leaders to speed up negotiations to finalise the details – Israeli belligerence remains unchecked. Consequently, Ankara may now be more worried by the Israeli than the Kurdish factor. On 14 June, Israeli Defence Minister Yisrael Katz said Israel would 'not allow any threat to the Druze community' or 'stand idly by' in the face of such a threat. Israel then bombed multiple sites in and around Damascus, killing at least three people, to drive its point home. It then ordered the Syrian government to withdraw its forces from Sweida.
Israel's political goal, on the surface, is to cultivate loyalties among segments of the Druze population wary of the intentions of the current regime in Damascus. Turkey suspects that Israel's aims are larger: broader military expansion and territorial annexation across southern Syria, further jeopardising Syrian sovereignty and territorial integrity.
To compound Ankara's unease, some Druze militia factions have begun to advocate for autonomy in their region. Those calls gained momentum following the kidnapping of a Druze merchant – the incident that sparked last week's bloody events in Sweida. At the same time, Druze spiritual leaders rejected the entry of government security forces into that area and, on 14 July, issued a statement appealing for urgent international protection.
Recent Turkish moves to push for calm are, in part, intended to forestall attempts by militant Druze factions to entrench a form of autonomy in Sweida. When sectarian clashes flared up again, these factions issued statements declaring they would not disarm in view of the ongoing threats to their community. Some also called for the establishment of a 'local security administration' not answerable to the transitional government. The authorities in Damascus fear that such calls would feed similar moves towards autonomous security entities elsewhere in the country, which would undermine the state's monopoly on arms and law enforcement.
Turkey shares such concerns for reasons of its own. The interwoven dynamics of the sectarian violence, the tug-of-war between the central government and local Sweida factions and authorities, and, above all, the escalatory and destabilising effects of Israel's military and political games could disrupt Turkey's plans for expanding its influence in Syria and resolving the Syrian refugee crisis in Turkey.
The Turkish strategy aligns with that of the transitional government in that it rests on the restoration of security and stability across Syria. Ankara worries that unrest, especially caused by sectarian strife, could harm the Syrian transitional government's image and, consequently, its ability to secure the international support it needs for reconstruction and development – all crucial to sustained stability.
Israel's cynical manipulation of the Druze issue to justify the perpetuation of its military interventions clearly works in the opposite direction.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 24 July, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
Follow us on:
Facebook
Instagram
Whatsapp
Short link: