Newsletter 2013/05/22 – The End of Artificial Borders
DAMASCUS/ANKARA/BERLIN (Own report) – With the ongoing Syrian military
successes, discussion in Berlin and other western capitals is focusing
more on a possible breakup of Syria’s national territory. Syria has
already been dissected into three parts, according to foreign policy
experts in Washington: Whereas the Assad government is seeking to
consolidate its control over Syria’s center and the coastal strip,
Sunni and often Islamist-oriented insurgents are in control of large
areas in the East and the North of the country. The Kurdish dominated
areas to the northeast comprise the third region. The German Institute
for International and Security Affairs (SWP) is proposing that Syria’s
division be approved. Referring to an “expert” on Turkish foreign
policy, the SWP estimates that, in the long run, the Kurdish speaking
regions of Syria and Iraq could be integrated into a “federalized”
Turkey. The 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement’s political configuration of
the Middle East is, therefore, facing dissolution. A new political
configuration would allow the establishment of a “secular Sunni
counterweight in opposition to a Shiite arc” (Iran and its allies) in
the Middle East. The SWP recommends “making every effort” to support
negotiations between Turkey and Kurdish organizations toward this
objective.
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