Syrian Leader’s Visit Highlights Shift in Relations With Turkey

Syrian President Bashar Assad began a landmark visit to Turkey on Tuesday, marking a dramatic shift in relations between the two countries that were close to war just five years ago.

Assad’s visit -- the first by a Syrian head of state -- is likely to focus on a growing number of mutual concerns, including the U.S. occupation of Iraq, fears of resurgent Kurdish nationalism in that country and regional instability.

Those issues have compelled Syria and Turkey, both of which border Iraq, to set aside their rivalry and seek avenues of cooperation.

Appearing at a joint news conference with Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Assad spoke warmly of his nation’s improved ties with its fellow Muslim neighbor.

“My visit coincides with a period when Syrian-Turkish relations are reaching a peak,” Assad said. “We have moved together from an atmosphere of distrust to one of trust.”

Syria in late November handed over 22 people suspected of involvement in suicide bomb attacks against British and Jewish targets in Istanbul -- a move that elicited unprecedented praise from the Turkish government.

“The Syrians are being extremely helpful in tracking down the terrorists,” Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in a recent interview. “We are extremely grateful.”

Gul’s comments irritated Washington, which lists Syria as a sponsor of international terrorism, but they reflected the change in relations between Damascus and Ankara.

Ties have been steadily improving for several years, but shared concerns over Iraq have accelerated the thaw between Syria and Turkey. Both countries fear that with tacit backing from the Americans, the Kurds of northern Iraq are moving toward independence. The disintegration of Iraq could trigger unrest among Syria’s and Turkey’s own Kurdish minorities and destabilize the region as a whole.

“We are opposed not only to a Kurdish state but also to any action against the territorial integrity of Iraq,” Assad told the private CNN-Turk news channel Monday. “For that reason, the breakup of Iraq would be a red line, not only as far as Syria and Turkey are concerned but for all the countries in the region.”

During his three-day visit, which will also take him to the country’s commercial capital, Istanbul, Assad is expected to sign a series of trade accords, including an agreement on preventing double taxation and encouraging tourism between the erstwhile enemies.

Animosity between Turkey and Syria dates to the 19th century, when the Ottoman Turks ruled much of the Middle East, including Syria, until their defeat by the Allies at the end of World War I. A Turkish proverb sums up the hostility: “We want neither the sweetmeats of Damascus nor to see the face of the Arab.”

A major source of tension is Syria’s outstanding territorial claims over Turkey’s southern province of Hatay. Dominated by ethnic Arabs, the area was ceded to Turkey in 1939 by Syria’s then-rulers, the French. Syria still includes Hatay in its official maps.

Another source of friction between Turkey and Syria is the water of the Euphrates River, which originates in Turkey. Syria has long accused the Turks of withholding what it claims to be its fair share of the river’s water and says such supplies are vital to Syrian agriculture.

Turkey, in turn, has long accused Syria of harboring Kurdish separatist guerrillas who waged a 15-year campaign against Turkish government forces to set up an independent Kurdish homeland in Turkey’s southeast.

The thaw between Turkey and Syria began in 1998 when Damascus expelled Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdish guerrilla group known as the PKK, after having offered him sanctuary for nearly two decades. The move followed threats from Turkey’s powerful military leaders to go to war against Syria.

A crucial military cooperation agreement signed a year earlier between Turkey and Israel “is one of the chief reasons that Syria took the Turkish threats seriously,” said an Arab diplomat in Ankara, who declined to be identified by name. “The Syrians felt they did not need a second enemy [Turkey] on their borders, so they decided to fix relations with Ankara.”

The recent rapprochement between Israel’s archenemy Syria and Turkey, its closest regional ally, has caused some alarm in the Jewish state. Publicly, Israeli diplomats have sought to put a positive spin on Assad’s visit, saying Turkey can play a mediating role between Syria and Israel.

In private, however, some Israeli officials have expressed fear that Turkey’s year-old Islamic-rooted government may be moving closer to the Arab world and Iran. Concern has grown since Turkey refused to allow U.S. troops to invade Iraq from its soil -- a move that enhanced Ankara’s standing among Arab nations.

Adding to such concerns, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, declined to accept a visit late last year by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, citing an overloaded schedule. And it was only under U.S. pressure that Erdogan canceled a planned visit to Iran, a key foe of Israel, before his trip this month to Washington to meet with President Bush.

Whether Syria’s warming ties with Turkey -- a key U.S. ally -- could help improve relations between Washington and Damascus remains to be seen. U.S. reaction to Assad’s visit to Turkey has been muted.

“We are watching with interest, but that’s all,” one U.S. official in Ankara said.