For many years, up until the Syrian civil war of 2011, Syria and Turkey enjoyed very close relations. In a series of reciprocal visits, Pres. Bashar al-Assad made a historic trip to Ankara in 2004, the first Syrian president to do so. Then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Damascus to sign a free trade agreement. In 2007, Erdogan and Assad attended the opening ceremony of the Aleppo International Stadium. Trade flourished with visa-free travel. In 2008, Erdogan and his wife hosted the Syrian first couple for a vacation in the Turkish resort town of Bodrum. In 2009, the two countries held joint military maneuvers along their mutual border. I was told that Pres. Assad, to appease his ‘Turkish ally,’ even banned Armenian Genocide books from bookstores in Syria.
In 2008, during this period of a cozy relationship between the two countries, the Catholicos of Cilicia Aram I met in Damascus with Pres. Assad. The Catholicos informed me later that Pres. Assad told him Armenians were making a big mistake by being anti-Turkey and constantly talking about the Armenian Genocide. Assad said that Armenians should forget the past and establish good relations with Turkey, which he described as a powerful and important country. He suggested that Armenia’s economy would benefit greatly from trading with Turkey.
As a descendant of survivors of the Armenian Genocide and a lifelong activist for justice for the victims of that mass crime, I was very upset to hear Pres. Assad’s terrible advice to Aram I. Keeping that conversation in mind, when I had a chance to travel to Damascus in early June 2009, I asked a mutual Armenian friend who was close to Pres. Assad to arrange a meeting for me with the president.
After I arrived in Damascus, my friend called the Presidential Palace to confirm the meeting. The president’s chief of staff told my friend to come to the palace alone to talk about the requested appointment. An hour later, my friend returned from the palace and told me in a dejected voice that the meeting would not take place, because the chief of staff had looked up my name online and discovered that I had written hundreds of critical articles about Turkey and the Armenian Genocide. He told my friend that it would not be possible for an anti-Turkey man like me to meet with Pres. Assad because of the friendly relations between Syria and Turkey.
Naturally, I was very disappointed. The reason I wanted to meet with Pres. Assad was to tell him that not only was his advice to Armenians wrong, but he himself was making a big mistake by trusting Pres. Erdogan. I wanted to tell Pres. Assad that Armenians know all too well the deceptive nature of Turkish leaders given the genocide Armenians suffered. I wanted to warn Pres. Assad that the day would come when his ‘good friend’ Erdogan would betray him and stab him in the back.
I could not have known in 2009 that two years later a major civil war would take place in Syria with the full backing of Erdogan. Even if I had the chance to meet with Pres. Assad to warn him, I was not sure that he would have listened to me. Regardless, I wanted to give him a piece of my mind.
I subsequently heard that Pres. Assad had also told other Armenians he had met with that they should be friends with Turks and Turkey. Assad particularly criticized Armenians for burning the Turkish flag on April 24.
Subsequent to my visit to Damascus, Pres. Assad visited Armenia on June 17-18, 2009 and offered to Pres. Serzh Sargsyan to mediate between Armenia and Turkey due to Syria’s “close relationships” with both countries. However, Pres. Assad did not pay a protocol visit to the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, which all foreign leaders do, to lay a wreath. This was yet another example of Pres. Assad’s excessive sensitivity not to upset Turkey. Assad also explained that, in deference to Turkey, Syria cannot recognize the Armenian Genocide.
In a Facebook post last week, Samvel Farmanyan, a former member of parliament and press secretary to Pres. Sargsyan in 2009, reported that when Pres. Assad excitedly spoke about his ‘excellent relations’ with Erdogan, Pres. Sargsyan replied: “You don’t know Turks well. The time will come and we will judge by the result.” This is similar to the message I wanted to convey to Pres. Assad in Damascus.
More interestingly, in March 2014, following several years of attacks on Syria orchestrated by Turkey, when Farmanyan led a parliamentary delegation to Syria and met with Pres. Assad, he asked Farmanyan to transmit to Pres. Sargsyan the following message: “I remember very well our private conversation in Yerevan [with Pres. Sargsyan].” Assad then added: “President Sargsyan was right. We did not know Turks well.”
Naira Karapetyan, another member of the parliamentary delegation that went to Syria in 2014, confirmed the accuracy of Farmanyan’s report about Pres. Assad, acknowledging that he was wrong to have trusted Erdogan.
Of course, it was too late by 2014 for Pres. Assad to realize that he should not have trusted Erdogan. That big mistake was one of the key reasons for his eventual downfall.
Harut Sassounian
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The shoddy defence of Syria afforded by its key ally Russia namely in pandering to Israel to try and keep in good favours with the USA with Israel styling itself as a mediator. Namely refusing to supply Syria with better air defence systems reportedly due to Russia not wanting them to be overcome although a Syrian S 200 system did shoot down an Israeli F16 . Russia instead of supporting Syria right to defend itself curbed Syria in return for Israel not going all out on Syria. Needless to say trying to please both had ended up pleasing no one. When Russia relationship with the west soured further during the Trump government and critically when it invaded Ukraine. Russia still kept being bamboozled by Israel also by now the invincibility myth so keenly promoted by the Kremlin was becoming quite debunked in Ukraine. However Russia needed whatever air defences for it’s own mission in Ukraine and even if the carefully nurtured myth was exploded it couldn’t afford to change its position now and was running down it’s mission in Syria. Which brings us back to an elephant in the room the MSM barely mentioned what kind of ally who has bases in that country and worked in cooperation with that countries military and it’s allies Iran and Hezbollah against militants yet upon Israel attacking sometimes within metres of Russian forces would merely issue notes of protest and summon the Israeli ambassador. Thus Russia had reputation of being a weak partner after all could one imagine such with a US ally with bases in that country no not at all. Clearly Putin hadn’t read or acknowledged Aesop’s fable of the father son and donkey and the moral of trying to please everyone ends up pleasing no one . Thus with the collapse of Iranian and Hezbollah positions in Syria forces of whom their common cause had saved many lives failed to realise that it’s position in Syria would be tied to their fate. Russia reward from Israel was that it didn’t provide much support to Ukraine although this good cop gesture is a token sop when one considers how much support Ukraine has received from other countries . Thus with the rapid collapse of the Syrian army Russia position has become awkward and is likely to have a phased withdrawal the Iranians have already left, clearly not welcome in Syria by the powers it had fought against. Also by now even if Assad who had naivety issues such as his claim in 2011 that Syria would be immune to such unrest due to its anti Israel stance despite the fact it was in rhetoric only. Russia by now had the Astana process which allowed Turkey a formal role and the idlib safe haven all part of what was supposed to be a negotiated settlement but actually became a Turkish protectorate within the territory of a Russian ally and as events would show the death knell of Assad Syria. Russia has shown itself to be naive such as the Minsk agreement over Ukraine which allowed that country to reform it’s military considerably ready to ambush Russia when after 8 years it decided to invade. This principle is also apparent for Armenia who had fought so hard 1991 94 and had a ceasefire on favourable terms would see it’s positions collapse in 2020 after a hiatus. Syria which had fought tennaicously Yet exhaustion corruption and the fact that HTS with extensive support from Turkey was a more effective force than the one driven out of Aleppo in 2016 Something that Armenians should take note of as Assad was staunchly pro Russia yet was deliberately left unprotected in arms and let to be defeated when it was no longer a priority. It will be interesting if the pro Turkish government of Syria continues to recognise the genocide.
No mention of brutal attack of Assad’s army on its own people, or use of chemical weapons s on women and children? Now you are siding a mass murderer? Erdogan’s stance changed only after Assad began his murderous oppression of the protestors and opponents. As it should have. Until, a few weeks ago Erdogan was extending a hand to Assad, urging him to sit and negotiate. He did not even respond. At an enormous cost, Russia and Iran bought him time, a whole decade worth of it. The man did nothing with it. What exactly should have Erdogan or anyone else should or could have done?
Murat, my article makes it very clear that Armenians know very well from their their many past tragic experiences the murderous nature of Turkish leaders such as Erdogan and his predecessors going back to several centuries. Assad was not an angel, neither is Erdogan who simply exploited the internal turmoil in Syria to fish in muddy waters. Erdogan can care less about Assad’s violations of human rights, since Erdogan himself is one of the biggest violators of human rights in the world! The reason Assad turned down Erdogan’s insincere offer is that Turkey has been illegally occupying large swaths of Northern Syria. So Assad replied by asking Erdogan to get the hell out of Syrian territory first before they can sit down and negotiate. If Erdogan was such a peaceful angel why has he been giving speech after speech, the latest today, announcing his expansionist plans in Syria and Iraq? Armenia is next.