The way to a solution in Syria passes through Aleppo

It was inevitable that the trilateral talks between Türkiye and Syria, which began in Russia, would have a shocking effect in terms of the habits created by a crisis that has lasted 12 years.

War and crisis are, in essence, a temporary condition. One is patient in the expectation that the destruction and devastation they cause will be made good right away once the war ends, and that the wounds that have been opened will be treated. But as the state of war drags on, that devastation becomes normal within the routine flow of life. And this is the worst of it: the ordinariness, the habituation, the routinization of evil, of violence, of human rights violations. Violations that have become ordinary compete with one another, raising the bar among themselves, but after a while none of them has any effect that would warn or awaken the conscience of humanity.

As these exceptions, which have become the rule as they are repeated and spread over time, accumulate, the whole world loses all its human sensibilities. If these things happen in Syria, then anything can happen in the world now. And there will be nothing to protect humanity against it.

Yet those who live through those pains go on living them. Those who have been uprooted from their homes and homelands, those who have lost their lives or limbs under bombs, or otherwise their relatives or houses, still go on living with those pains and traumas. Moreover, what they have lived through goes on being repeated every day. For 12 years nothing has changed in the relations between state and people in Syria.

The negotiations that have begun between Türkiye and Syria are of course surprising, because they have disrupted this routine, which, having dragged on beyond all measure, has darkened the conscience of humanity. But this surprise echoes differently in everyone. There are those who react, skipping over so many things that have happened, with "What happened, that the Assad you called a brother the day before yesterday and a murderer all day yesterday, what is this rapprochement with him?" A tremendous incomprehension, insensitivity, a complete indifference toward tyranny and crimes against humanity. There is nothing to show or tell these blind and deaf of conscience. What can you show to eyes that have not seen so many things that happened right under their noses, what can you tell to ears that have not heard the cries that have reached a fever pitch from tyranny?

The Syrians who have lived through these events in person and who still go on living them, directly or through their relatives, were rightly seized by serious worry, and their traumas were revived. To this day the regime takes people from their homes on the basis of a mere acquaintance or suspicion and throws them into prisons toward an uncertain end. Prison means a grave reached after passing through torture. People whose fate no one can even ask about. Would any understanding reached with Türkiye and the regime abandon them to such mercilessness?

Since the news of this rapprochement was heard, I have listened to such worries from the Syrians I have met. But I have also listened to their expressions of trust in Türkiye, from the great majority. A significant part of the Syrians I have spoken with greet this initiative of Türkiye, at this point of this long-drawn-out crisis, with great excitement and trust.

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies (ORSAM), chaired by Prof. Dr. Ahmet Uysal, organized a very productive meeting in recent days in which we met and spoke at length with a group of politicians, journalists and civil society representatives from the Syrian opposition. Although there were those who reacted to this rapprochement with worries they felt at first, we even gain the impression that it has created great hope because of the trust felt in Türkiye and Erdoğan.

However, everyone is allied in the view that securing control of only a 30 km strip, although it may perhaps give Türkiye an advantage in the fight against terror, will not bring stability. However much the conditions of refuge provided there are improved, they cannot be attractive enough for refugees in other countries to return, and so it is far from sustainable.

However, Syrian opinion leaders underline in particular that the "liberation, neutralization and securing" of Aleppo under Turkish guarantorship is, as the only way that will bring stability and peace, absolutely necessary. According to them this is the most suitable solution, not only for Türkiye but for Syria in general, until a more lasting solution is reached.

Aleppo, together with its countryside, housed 25 percent of Syria's population before the war. Even nearly half of the Syrians currently in Türkiye are from this region. It must not be forgotten that they were forcibly deported from their own country, homes and lands. In the places these people vacated, the regime, with Iranian support, is trying, unfortunately, to carry out a serious ethnic cleansing by bringing in Shiite elements from Afghanistan, Pakistan and many other places. The Syrians living in Türkiye have a distinct sensitivity about their homeland being occupied in this way, and this motivates them all the more to return.

Regarding the Aleppo solution that I voiced some time ago in two articles, I put to the Syrians as a question the reactions that also came to me: Why and how do you think Assad could be persuaded to agree to this, that is, to give Aleppo to the opposition?

They say that Aleppo is not being given to anyone. Assad, who is thoroughly isolated on the stage of international relations, if he is to continue this way, needs one solution or another. This solution begins with the opening of the way for the Syrian people to return to their own land.

Aleppo is not being given to Türkiye; Türkiye's role is only protection against the regime's excessive and arbitrary control. Türkiye is the only country that has so far won the trust of the Syrian people regarding this protection or guarantorship, and moreover it constantly underlines Syria's territorial integrity as a country. That is, Assad would be leaving Aleppo not to anyone but only to his own people, that is, to its owners, in a way that it remains an inseparable part of Syria.

As things stand today, Syria does not belong to the Syrians, nor Aleppo to the people of Aleppo. Türkiye, for its part, is in a position in these talks to ensure that Syria remains the country of the Syrians and Aleppo the city of the people of Aleppo.

For a transition period toward a lasting solution in Syria, this solution appears to everyone as very reasonable and even as the only way.