Syrian-Turkish conflict 2012

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Turkey (orange) and Syria (green)

In the course of the Syrian civil war from 2011, there was a military conflict between the neighboring countries Syria and Turkey . The Turkish government called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to resign several times and closed the common border in July 2012. The situation eventually led to NATO's Active Fence operation on the border between Turkey and Syria .

Historical and political background

Relations between Turkey and Syria were good until the outbreak of civil war in Syria. Over the years, a kind of male friendship had developed between the then Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan and the Syrian President Assad. Turkey, which was growing stronger, saw itself as an important mediating force in the Middle East and raised a certain claim to leadership.

However, Turkey found that a scenario like the one in Tunisia or Egypt will not repeat itself in Syria and that Assad would block all attempts at overthrowing the Arab Spring . Since this realization, according to the journalist Thomas Kirchner ( Süddeutsche Zeitung ), the Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan has become Assad's sharpest international adversary. Erdoğan invited the Syrian National Council , the main opposition platform, to Istanbul. He also gave the Free Syrian Army a retreat (see section Turkey's support for the Syrian opposition ).

Domestically, Prime Minister Erdoğan came under pressure as his Syria and his entire foreign policy were on the verge of failure. In Turkey's other area of ​​conflict, the so-called “Kurdish question”, the Kurdish independence movement profited from the conflict in Syria. The Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Syrian sister organization of the Kurdish PKK , controlled a strip about a hundred kilometers in length along the Turkish-Syrian border . Erdoğan feared that the Assad-backed Kurdish rebels could proclaim an independent republic like the one in northern Iraq . In summer 2012 the conflict with the PKK escalated again.

Patriot missile launch vehicle near Gaziantep

After a grenade attack from Syria into the Turkish border area in October 2012, the Turkish parliament passed a draft law that made intervention in Syria possible. The text was incorporated into an existing law that allows operations outside the Turkish borders . For example, the law authorizes military action against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

In May 2013 there was a devastating double attack in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli . Nine suspects were then arrested. They were all Turkish citizens and some of them confessed to the fact. 46 people were killed in the attacks. The two car bombs also injured around 140 people. According to Turkish government politicians at the time, there were traces of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The perpetrators are said to have had contact with the Syrian secret service. The Syrian government denied any responsibility. According to information from Syrian opposition activists, some Syrians were among the injured. The Turkish army sent reinforcements to the border area.

Telephone calls were made public during the 2014 local elections campaign in Turkey. In the recording of the then Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu , head of the domestic intelligence service Hakan Fidan , General Yaşar Guler and State Secretary Feridun Hadi Sinirlioğlu about a military operation in Syria and whether there was a justifying reason, e.g. B. could be created under a false flag for this if necessary.

Former Foreign Minister Yaşar Yakış , co-founder of the AKP , rated Turkey's commitment to Syria in an interview in February 2016 as a serious mistake. To bet everything that Assad would overthrow quickly and to continue the unreserved support of opposition forces even after the international community recognized that arms supplies to the opposition had ended up in the hands of fanatics, the country was sidelined.

Route of the Turkish military aircraft shot down in July 2012

Turkey's support for the Syrian opposition

In March 2012, the Turkish government had spoken out in favor of a buffer zone on Syrian territory. From May 2012 at the latest, fighters of the Free Syrian Army and other units of the Syrian opposition were trained and armed by the Turkish secret service .

The number of Syrian refugees in Turkey rose from around 100,000 in October 2012 to around 1.4 million in August 2014. In February 2020, over 3.6 million registered refugees from Syria were in Turkey (as of March 5, 2020 ).

Military actions

In April 2012, shells hit a refugee camp on Turkish territory near the border. Two refugees died in the process.

In June 2012, the Syrian army shot down a Turkish fighter jet that briefly flew into Syrian airspace. The two pilots were killed. After the shooting down of the Turkish McDonnell F-4 , Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan said that Turkey would react to such border violations tougher in the future. The Turkish government called on Assad to resign several times and closed the common border in July 2012.

On October 3, 2012, the Turkish army shelled targets in Syria (military base near Tall Abyad ) in response to a grenade attack on the Turkish town of Akçakale . The North Atlantic Council condemned the Syrian attack. According to Turkish sources, a mother and her three children were killed in the attack. A day later, Turkey fired at targets in Syria. According to the Syrian government, several Syrian soldiers were killed.

On October 10, 2012, the Turkish Air Force forced a Syrian passenger plane over its airspace to land at Ankara Airport in order to search the plane coming from Moscow for weapons. In addition, the Turkish Foreign Ministry asked all airlines to stop flying over Syria. A Turkish Airlines plane then broke off the journey and landed in southern Turkey on an unscheduled basis. Even several days after the incident, the Turkish government did not disclose what was on board the plane that was forced to land.

According to Hürriyet, the Turkish armed forces increased their presence in the border area with Syria on October 12, 2012. The Air Force had relocated 15 fighter planes from other parts of the country to Diyarbakir in southeast Anatolia . In addition, the number of tanks in the border area was increased by a further 60 to 250. The conflict escalated further on the same day. A Turkish fighter plane drove away a Syrian attack helicopter that had wanted to attack the Syrian town of Asmarin , which is held by militants .

In November 2012, Turkey requested NATO aid. In December 2012, NATO's 28 foreign ministers decided to launch Operation Active Fence to protect NATO member Turkey from attacks from Syria. Patriot anti-aircraft missiles ( MIM-104 Patriot Phased Array Tracking Radar to Intercept On Target), a ground-based medium-range anti-aircraft missile system for defense against aircraft, cruise missiles and tactical medium-range ballistic missiles are intended to protect the Turkish border area with Syria. On September 16, 2013, the Turkish army shot at a Syrian attack helicopter. Germany, the Netherlands and the USA will each station two batteries at the border until January 30, 2014.

In November 2015, the shooting down of a Sukhoi Su-24 of the Russian air force , which was involved in attacks against fighters of the Syrian opposition, by a Turkish fighter plane on the border between Syria and Turkey led to serious diplomatic tensions.

In August 2016, in addition to the air strikes and artillery shelling, there was also a military offensive in northern Syria with ground troops since the end of July .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Kirchner: Escalation between former male friends , Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 4, 2012.
  2. ↑ FAZ.NET: Turkey blames the Syrian secret service. In: FAZ.net . May 12, 2013, accessed October 13, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Hasnain Kazim: New video leaks: Erdogan has YouTube blocked. In: Spiegel Online . March 27, 2014, accessed July 20, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Markus Bernath: "" Turkey placed all eggs in one basket "" Standard.at of February 12, 2016
  5. ↑ Turkey considers Syria buffer zone; Annan seeks unity , Reuters, March 17, 2012.
  6. ↑ Michael Weiss: Syrian rebels say Turkey is arming and training them , The Telegraph, May 22, 2012.
  7. ↑ The number of Syrian refugees rises dramatically: Jordanian police have to take tough action. In: German Turkish News , October 3, 2012, accessed on October 3, 2012.
  8. ↑ Syrian refugees in Turkey: Curse of the good deed Spiegel Online August 2, 2014
  9. ^ War in Syria: Putin and Erdogan agree ceasefire. From midnight [5./6. March 2020] there should be a new ceasefire in the rebel stronghold of Idlib . In: tagesschau.de . March 5, 2020, accessed March 11, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Turkey shoots targets in Syria , Die Zeit , October 3, 2012, accessed on October 3, 2012.
  11. ↑ Syrian soldiers apparently killed , ORF, October 4, 2012.
  12. ↑ Turkish jets force Syrian plane to land , Spiegel Online , October 10, 2012, accessed on October 10, 2012.
  13. ↑ Michael Martens, Michael Ludwig: Turkish Air Force pushes Syrian helicopter. In: FAZ.net . October 12, 2012, accessed October 13, 2018 .
  14. ^ NATO : Four Patriot batteries operational in Turkey. Retrieved February 1, 2013 .
  15. ^ Turkish Stream gas project on hold due to Russian-Turkish dispute. FAZ , December 3, 2015, archived from the original on December 8, 2015 .;