Turkey is building a wall inside the Syrian territory to separate its areas of control

Yamin Al Khalid – Idlib
Translated by: Hejar Abo
Turkey is responsible for dividing Syria and occupies large areas in northern Syria

Turkey’s ambitions in the Syrian territories continue to increase day after day, in an attempt to occupy more Syrian areas and annex them to Turkey, and is working to consolidate its presence in the long term by entering tens of thousands of soldiers and military vehicles under the pretext of deploying “observation points”.

Turkey occupies large parts of northern Syria, and the Turkish-backed armed factions control the occupied areas, while Turkey recently began the building a secret separation wall, with the aim of separating its areas of control from the areas controlled by the Syrian regime forces, in a new step to divide the Syrian lands and ensure its permanent presence in Syria.

Turkey began building the cement barrier wall in late March, and the wall extends from the city of Al-Bab to the Tadef region, east of the city of Aleppo, which are areas along the fighting fronts separating the areas controlled by the factions loyal to the Turkish occupation and the areas controlled by the Syrian regime forces, according to special sources of Aso Network.

A source from the “National Front for the Liberation of Syria” faction told Aso News Network that the construction work of the wall is continuing, accompanied by digging a trench adjacent to the wall, and is being worked on by the factions of the Turkish-backed National Army, as the factions brought in bulldozers and machinery and began construction work under the direct supervision of Turkey, without That Turkey make any statements about the process of building the wall.

While the source quoted a leader in the “National Front for the Liberation of Syria” faction as saying that the goal of building the wall is to prevent attempts to smuggle civilians and members and officers of the Syrian regime, in addition to preventing smuggling of fuel and drugs.

Basim Al-Ali, a military analyst and defected officer from the Syrian regime forces and residing in Lebanon, told Aso News Network that Turkish ambitions are clear in northern Syria, and Turkey is trying to keep the military situation and the map of military control as it is now, to ensure the longest possible period of control over northern Syria.

Turkey has deluded civilians in northern Syria, the armed opposition factions and the international community, that it supports the Syrian cause and stands by the Syrian people in achieving their demands for freedom and justice and overthrowing the Syrian regime, but the Turkish position has changed since 2017, and began occupying large areas of Syria on the border strip in northern Syria under the pretext of “national security” and the exclusion of the Syrian Democratic Forces from its southern borders.

He added that the construction of a wall separating the areas of northern Syria from the areas under the control of the Syrian regime forces is a clear violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian territories, and Turkey seeks to continue its presence in the Syrian territories in the future, and has no intention of withdrawing from the Syrian territories controlled by the armed factions that provide it with support. financially and militarily.

Al-Ali indicated that the construction of the cement wall means that the Turkish authorities have evaded their commitments to force the Syrian regime forces to retreat from the areas they controlled during 2019 and 2020, including the countryside of the cities of Aleppo, Hama and Idlib, where more than a million people have been displaced from these areas, the majority of whom live within Displacement camps under very difficult living conditions.

The decline in popular acceptance of the Turkish presence in northern Syria
The cities of northern Syria are witnessing a decline in the popular welcome for the Turkish presence among the Syrians, after their hopes were dashed in Turkey, and the majority of Syrians realize that Turkey is no longer working only for its own good and is using the factions of the “Syrian National Army” as a tool to implement their agendas and ambitions in northern Syria.

The northern Syrian regions witnessed the emergence of several popular demonstrations denouncing Turkey’s handling of the Syrian issue, and it is likely that the popular rejection of the Turkish presence in Syria will intensify if Turkey continues to occupy more Syrian lands, as Turkish ambitions have become exposed to the people without its commitment to ensuring the fate of thousands of displaced people in camps in northern Syria.

With the spread of news of the construction of the wall, which was started by the Turkish occupation, the project to build the wall was widely criticized by civilians residing in northern Syria, as they considered it the beginning of a new occupation of the areas by Turkey under the pretext of protecting civilians, stressing the need for Turkey to abide by its pledge to return the displaced and refugees to their homes, villages and towns, instead of building the wall and digging a trench separating the areas under the control of the Syrian regime forces..

Bilal al-Abid al-Mone’im, a resident of the town of Jindires in the northern countryside of Aleppo, told Aso News Network that Turkey has completely isolated the northern Syrian region from Syria, and made it a sector similar to the “Gaza Strip” in Palestine, to make it easier for it to stay for as long as possible.

Al-Mone’im adds that the Turkish occupation takes the issue of protecting civilians and preventing military attacks by the Syrian regime forces as a pretext for the continued occupation of Syrian lands, and this is rejected by the majority of northern Syrian residents who realized after a decade of the Syrian crisis that Turkey is implementing a dangerous scheme in northern Syria, which is Changing the demographics of the region.

Al-Mone’im continues that the Turkish occupation and its armed factions had no intention of recovering the areas that were controlled by the Syrian regime forces during 2019 and 2020, while Turkey is working to unify the ranks of the factions loyal to it in the northern countryside of Aleppo. It must work to return the areas, not that It isolates a large geographical area of Syria to become part of the Turkish territory in the future.

Al-Mone’im points out that all indications are that the Turkish occupation authorities have no intention of leaving the Syrian territories soon, as they prove the pillars of their control at all levels and fields, by supporting the military presence and dominating vital sectors such as the medical, economic, agricultural and service sectors.

He stressed that civilians in northern Syria are resentful of the way the Turkish occupation deals with the Syrian issue, especially with regard to the issue of withdrawing the ability to take military decisions from the factions loyal to them and turning these factions into mercenaries in the hands of Turkey to implement its agendas, and it is not unlikely that the northern Syrian regions will witness a new revolution against Turkish interference in Syrian affairs.

Hanan Sweid, a resident of Samdoun camp within the town of Salqin in the northern countryside of Idlib, told Aso News Network that the observation points that are spread in most areas of northern Syria are no longer of any importance, after the Turkish occupation handed over large parts of the countryside of Aleppo, Hama and Idlib to the Syrian regime forces, and the observation points were withdrawn from them within a few days in the battles that took place during 2019 and 2020.

Sweid adds that in the event of building the wall and isolating the areas of northern Syria, these military points, which were the basis for the goal of separating the armed opposition factions and the Syrian regime forces, no longer have any effective role, and that Turkey succeeded in deceiving the Syrian people and was able to tighten its control over the areas of northern Syria.

Denouncing only is not enough, but there must be popular demonstrations and a strong move to pressure Turkey, in order to stop its manipulation of the Syrian issue, especially with regard to the return and deportation of Syrian refugees residing on its lands, or launching a new military operation in northeastern Syria, building a wall and digging a trench to divide Syrian territory, she said.

She explained that all these abuses and violations must stop, and there are many today who want Turkey to leave Syria and lift its hand from the factions, as it has only provided the Syrian people with more destruction, and the transition from a tyrannical regime represented by the Syrian regime to another tyrannical regime led by Erdogan.

Hanan Al-Sweid demands the exit of all Turkish military forces from Syrian territory and work to reactivate the revolutionary movement that the Syrian revolution began with, away from foreign agendas, stressing its rejection of the project to build the cement wall that Turkey is constructing along the points of contact between its areas of control and those of the Syrian regime forces.

Journalist activist “Khalil al-Omar” from the northern countryside of Idlib told Aso News Network that Turkey has always reiterated its commitment to the unity of Syrian lands and not to seek partition, but during the past three years, Turkey’s ambitions began to appear to dominate the areas it controlled, and after Turkey provided throughout these years, unlimited support for the factions to which they belong, including factions classified on terrorist lists, they sought to exploit this support and nibble the Syrian regions.

Al-Omar continues that Turkey aims to build the wall to ensure that the Syrian regime forces do not advance into these areas, and to keep them stable under its tutelage, at least during the current period, and this guardianship may develop in the future to the extent that these areas are included in the Turkish map and become Turkish lands along the lines of the Syrian Iskenderun Brigade

Al-Omar explained that Turkey aims to get rid of the Syrian refugees before the start of the Turkish presidential elections, and for this reason it is trying to prepare the northern Syrian region and ensure stability in it to deport all Syrian refugees to it, and Turkey is trying to complete this project before 2023.

The armed factions, including Islamist groups such as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra), must get rid of “slavery” to Turkey, and have the ability to take military decisions and the ability to bring about change in the region, based on the principle of rejecting the division of Syria and reject the Demographic change” and this is the only and optimal solution, which we see as remote and almost impossible, he said.

The Turkish occupation plans to return one million Syrian refugees as a first step in its project, which it calls the “safe zone” and “voluntary return”, by building more settlements inside the occupied areas in the northern countryside of Aleppo, in addition to building settlements in the city of Idlib and its countryside, the last of which was on May 3rd. The Turkish Interior Minister Suleiman Soylu inaugurated a new residential settlement in the town of Batbo in the northern Idlib countryside.