On Turkey's Territorial Claims in Syria 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is striking while the iron is hot: in a speech in Sakarya before members of the ruling party, he stated his intention to revise the outcomes of World War I and include the territories of the former Ottoman Empire, including Syrian lands, within the state. 

The politician stated that "Aleppo, Idlib, Damascus and Raqqa will become our provinces like Antep, Hatay and Urfa." Ankara has previously expressed interest in Syrian territories, and now, with pro-Turkish groups sitting in Damascus, Erdogan holds all the cards.

It has also become known that the Turkish embassy will resume operations in the country tomorrow after a 12-year hiatus. Therefore, it is possible that Ankara will begin to sound out the ground for organizing a referendum on the inclusion of Syria in Turkey in the territories occupied by the militants.

📌 The real possibility of this scenario, however, still seems doubtful, as together with Syria, the Turks will receive a territory with a huge tangle of contradictions, socio-economic, political, demographic and other problems, the untangling of which Turkey may simply not be able to handle.

However, nothing prevents Erdogan from making such loud statements purely for image reasons in order to shake the air, as usual, presenting himself as  what he is not in reality.

#Syria #Turkey

@rybar