Erdogan Is The New Sultan Of The Middle East

“On the land of Syria I will live… I will tell generations to come… how evil visited my country… turned it to a big cemetery, and called it “Spring”

March of 2011 will forever remain as a wound in the hearts of many Syrians around the world. The year where terror entered Syria and inevitably destroyed everything and everyone in its path. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is one of the key figures that took part in this destruction to help destabilize the Syrian government by creating a proxy civil war. He may have been successful in brainwashing the majority of Turkish people into admiring him, but to most Syrians, he will remain to be the sadistic sultan that gleefully watched the destruction of Syria.

Prior to the outbreak of the proxy Syrian war, Iran, Iraq and Syria had signed a $10 billion dollar pipeline deal. The length of the pipeline ranges anywhere from 1,500 kilometers to 1,700 kilometers and will ultimately run from Assalouyeh, Iran to Damascus, Syria. While the pipeline would span from Iran to Syria, it would pass through Iraq and would transfer approximately 110 million cubic meters of natural gas on a daily basis. The natural gas will be yield from the Iranian South Pars gas field which is located in the Gulf region. Iran shares this field with Qatar and it is estimated that Iran refrains from using 16 trillion cubic meters of recoverable gas. Ideally, what Iran had in mind was to produce about 600 million cubic meters of gas daily and from that, only 37 million cubic meters would be exported to foreign countries. Eventually, Iran wanted to expand the pipelines to Lebanon and the Mediterranean so they could supply gas to Europe.

As stated, Iran and Qatar share a gas field and like Iran, Qatar had a pipeline deal of its own. While Iran, Iraq, and Syria were in negotiations regarding the pipeline deal, Qatar and Turkey had been negotiating amongst themselves as well. Turkey and Qatar wanted to create a pipeline that would pass through Doha, Qatar to Istanbul, Turkey. The pipeline would carry Qatari gas to the Mediterranean Sea that would cross through Syria. Eventually, Qatar and Turkey wanted to extend their pipelines to Europe but in order for that to occur, the pipelines must pass through Syria. When President Assad agreed to the pipeline deal proposed by Iran, Qatar’s and Turkey’s plans were no longer in use. After this incident, Turkey and Qatar began to support and arm the opposition terrorists in Syria. Erdoğan, with open arms allowed a flock of Syrian refugees, those that evaded the atrocities supposedly held by the Syrian government to freely enter Turkey. According to Erdoğan, there are almost one million Syrian refugees that are residing in Turkey. Despite Erdoğan’s strong support for the Syrian opposition, a fragment of Turks do not agree with him and go against his ruling. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, member of the Republican People’s Party in Turkey states that Erdoğan has provided training for terrorists to eventually cross the border and entire Syria to fight against the Syrian Arab Army. Kılıçdaroğlu was also quite offensive when had visited the bombed town of Reyhanlı and stated, “You have no idea about Reyhanlı, you do not know their problems. You do not know the locals’ crafts issues. You are the man who trains members of terrorist organizations and sends them into Syria. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, you are the terrorist leader for Syria”. Not only does he train these terrorists and fund them, it was later proven that many Turkish radicals had entered Syria to do jihad. As foreign passports were collected by the Syrian Arab Army, many of them ended up be Turkish passports.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the blood thirsty Muslim brotherhood supporter, is in fact is the leader of terrorists for Syria. When the issue of chemical weapons arose, the gulf nations and the west were determined that their red-line plan would lead to the fall of the Syrian government. Later, evidence was found that the chemical weapons were in fact used by terrorists in Syria and were not held by the Syrian government. Reports had confirmed that Sarin nerve gas was in the possession of Al-Qaeda and was given to them through Turkish terroritory. Turkish sources also reported that Turkish border guards seized three vehicles that were loaded with one thousand kilograms of chemicals. These vehicles were going to illegally cross the border into Syria until one of the smugglers was arrested while the rest managed to escape. The Turkish general staff claimed that the vehicles attempted to cross from Reyhanli (Southeastern Turkey) into Syria. It was found that the vehicles contained 20 bags of sulphur that weighed about fifty kilograms each.

As the war reached its third year, Erdoğan’s sinister plans in Syria did not cease. Erdoğan and his terrorists made an attack on Kasab, a Syrian city that is largely inhabited by Armenians. With Turkey and Armenia being century old rivals, it is without a doubt that Erdogan had skillfully planned this attack on this specific city. As the coward Erdoğan is, he had closed the borders of Turkey and Syria after sending in his armed militants. However, because the borders were blocked, the amount of terrorists could not increase and they would eventually be trapped. The Syrian Arab Army profusely fought against the terrorists. While hundreds of Armenians had fled from Kasab to Latakia, a “save Kasab” campaign began to trend and raised awareness of Turkish aggression in Syria. Many celebrities took part in this trend and spoke against the atrocities committed by the Turkish government in Kasab. Fortunately, the Syrian Arab Army was able to liberate the city of Kasab and its inhabitants were able to move back and carry on with their lives. During this time, however, Erdoğan had sent three hundred Turkish troops into Syria under the mission called “protecting Suleyman Shah tomb”. It was stated that the troops had crossed into Northern Syria to protect the tomb. Despite the fact that the tomb may be considered under Turkish sovereignty, the tomb lies twenty-five kilometers inside Syria. ISIS had reported that the Turkish government had sent three hundred troops for deployment and were approximately two hundred meters away from the Al-Qaeda forces. ISIS also stated that the Turkish troops were backed by six MBT’s and twelve armored vehicles. A tape was later leaked about Turkey’s role in Syria and their decision to send troops to defend the tomb of Suleyman Shah. On the tape, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu was heard saying that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sees this attack as an “opportunity” to increase Turkish presence in Syria, where  the Turkish government has been loyal to the Syrian opposition. Later, Security chief Hakan Fidan continues and suggests staging a fake attack to give Turkey an opportunity to intervene in the conflict.

Shortly after the leaking of the tape, The Foreign Ministry in Ankara stated that the leak taped was a “wretched attack” on national security and also claimed it was partially manipulated.

Below, is a link to the leaked recording.

Despite all of his attempts to destabilize the Syrian government, Erdoğan was not successful and till this day the Syrian government is fighting back strong. Erdoğan has unleashed a monster that had attempted to destroy Syria, yet he is unaware that that same monster will one day haunt his very own country.

Author Kristina Kousherian is a senior student at the University of California, Berkeley majoring in Political Science.