Syrian Turkmens - who are they? On whose side are the Syrian Turkmens at war?

The existence of such a people as the Syrian Turkmens, interested in the events in Syria, could learn relatively recently, after the Russian bomber was shot down by the Turkish border. The pilots who managed to eject were shot in the air. One of them died, the fate of the second for a while the information was contradictory. Syrian Turkmens, who shot at Russians, said that they had killed both pilots. Later, from reliable sources, it became known that the co-pilot was rescued and taken out during the search and rescue operation.

Who are the Syrian Turkmens? What position is taken in the current war?

If you go into the history ...

The first mention of the appearance of Turkmen and Oghuz tribes in the region dates back to the 9th century. Basically, the settlement of the Middle Asian lands of the Middle East and Asia Minor began in the 11th century, when the Seljuks established a government here with the help of Turkish militia. Under the pressure of the Mongols, the Seljuk empire disintegrated. During the reign of the Osmanians (from the 14th century until 1922), Syrian Turkmens defended pilgrims on the lands of modern Syria (Aleppo, Hama, Latakia, Homs, Tartus, Idlib, Jarablus), according to the canons of Muslims who performed Hajj annually. Since that time numerous representatives of this people live in these areas.

During the French occupation, some people moved to Damascus.

Grains of discontent

Before the civil war, about one-sixth of Syria's territory was inhabited by Turkmen. According to various estimates, their number is about 3 and a half million, of which one and a half million speak their native language. The majority religion is Sunnis (the most numerous branch of Islam), there are also Alawites (one of the most mysterious religious Islamic movements).

Mostly representatives of this nationality are engaged in shoe business, they own factories in Aleppo, the workers of these enterprises are also Turkmen. There are among them politicians, cultural figures, military and scientists (in particular, former Syrian defense minister Hasan al-Turkmani).

In the 30s, as a result of the assimilation policy pursued by the Syrian government, representatives of this people were deprived of many rights. They did not have the opportunity to unite in circles and parties. They were forbidden to communicate, publish books, learn in their native language.

Until a certain time in their camp, discontent with the acting authorities was ripe.

What preceded the big conflict?

Between 2006 and 2011, more than half of the Syrian lands were plagued by drought. The lack of talent in economic policy led to desertification of lands, loss of crops and livestock. According to the UN and the Red Cross in 2010, about a million people were on the verge of starvation.

The rural population massively went to the cities. In Aleppo in 2011 there were 200 thousand refugees. Unemployment was 20%. Political forces that did not agree with the authorities were outlawed.

Demanding the adoption of socially fair decisions, ethnoconfessional groups of Sunnis, Alawites, Kurds and Christians united and rose to the struggle.

Causes of the explosion

Sources believe that the main reason for the beginning of the Arab Spring is the ripened and erupting outburst of people's discontent with the authoritarian rule of the incumbent president, corruption in the higher echelons of power, exacerbation of religious contradictions, and so on.

According to political scientists, Syria's internal problems proved to be a fertile ground for inciting an external conflict.

"Fire to the wick" was brought from outside.

As the journalists of The Wall Street Journal, Nur Malas and Carol Lee testify, for several years the representatives of the US President Administration conducted secret talks with the employees of the Syrian state apparatus for recruiting people ready to assist the military coup and the removal of the incumbent president from the government.

Chronicle of protests

A month before the commotion (in late January 2011), the extremist organization "Syrian Revolution" appeared in Facebook, calling for an uprising against the authority of Bashar Assad.

Initially, anti-government speeches were scattered, up to the mass actions that broke out on March 15 in Daraya. The revolt resembled the scenarios in Tunisia and Egypt. Soon the protests turned into a nationwide full-scale insurrection.

Against the insurgents tanks were deployed, in particularly rebel areas, water and electricity were cut off, security forces confiscated food and flour from people.

Government forces were besieged the cities of Daraya, Aleppo, Khama Duma, Homs, Latakia, etc. Soldiers who refused to shoot civilians were shot on the spot.

Insurgents and defectors from the army formed fighting detachments, deployed an armed company against the government army. So the Free Army of Syria was created. Violent clashes began throughout the country.

The escalation of violence

The authorities reacted ruthlessly to the suppression of unrest, rumors spread throughout the country about the atrocities of the regular army units in relation to the inhabitants of the insurgent cities.

Against Syria, EU sanctions were imposed. But the escalation of the conflict was gaining momentum, the number of victims was growing.

At the turn of 2011-2012, the government began to use artillery and tanks against the rebels. On December 26, tanks shoot at homes in Homs.

In some states protest actions against the Assad regime are taking place, the participants are making pogroms in the embassies of Syria. The United States and Great Britain, and withdraw their ambassadors from Damascus.

In April 2012, Assad is trying to peacefully settle the conflict. A truce is declared in the country, and UN observers are accepted.

For the first time in half a century in Syria, elections are held on a multi-party basis in which the National Unity (Baath Party) bloc wins.

Despite the declared peace, armed clashes continue.

Participation in the confrontation of other countries

The confrontation includes other states: financing and arming the Syrian rebels with the oil monarchies of the Persian Gulf. Iran stands in defense of the Syrian government. The Russian Federation supplies Assad with defensive weapons.

In summer 2012, Turkey openly enters the conflict: on June 22, a Turkish fighter was shot down over Syria.

The UN and the Red Cross officially recognize the conflict in Syria as a civil war.

Help for Russians

In March 2015, anti-government forces take control of the Syrian cities one by one. In the captured Palmira, IGIL committed mass executions, disposed of 400-450 civilians, supporting soldiers and government (mostly women).

After the IGIIL in summer 2015, 60,000 civilians were displaced in El Khasaka.

Soon the number of refugees, according to UN estimates, reached 200 thousand.

In the summer of 2015, the US found evidence of cooperation of Turkish officials with IGIL.

In September, Igil completely superseded Assad's troops from the province of Idlib, seized the last oil field ("Jazal"), which is under the control of government troops, the Abu al-Duhur air base.

Asad appeals for help to the Russians, and on September 30 Russian planes began to operate on the infrastructure of the militants with point-like blows. After a week-long stripping of Russian aviation, the victorious large-scale offensive of the Syrian army began, during which government troops resumed control over most of the country's territory.

On whose side are the Syrian Turkmens?

According to the Associated Press, representatives of this people were among the first to support an armed rebellion against the incumbent, with the assistance and assistance of Ankara.

In 2012, Syrian Turkmens create their own army, numbering more than 10 thousand people. The armed forces are deployed in several areas of Iraq and Syria. The militias are waging a war against President Assad and the IG factions. From reliable sources it is known that the training of the militants of their brigades was conducted by the instructors of special forces from the patron saint.

Syrian Turkmens and Turkey

After the outbreak of civil war in Syria, the situation of the people in the country deteriorated significantly. He was face to face with serious opponents: the army of Bashar Assad, the radical fundamentalists of the IG and the Kurdish factions. Ankara acted as a patron. Syrian Turkmens and Turkey - what is the connection? Representatives of this nationality living in Syria and Iraq are in close relationship with the people who live in Turkey, which agrees to support them in every way in exchange for the commitment to move in the fairway of its beneficial policies.

It is clear that Ankara is concerned not so much with the problems of the people oppressed in Syria, but with its own interests - political and economic.

With the help of the Turkmen detachments at the border, the necessary counterweight to Kurdish self-defense is created. In addition, they are involved in providing contraband interaction with the IG. Political analysts do not exclude that Ankara is striving to become the initiator of the intensification of separatist sentiments among the Turkmens, eventually to include the lands of Syria where they live.

Positioning itself as a defender of the oppressed people, Ankara covers up the planned incidents with the protection of his interests.

The Syrian question

According to reliable information, Turkey takes an active part in the so-called Syrian issue.

One of the projects to destabilize the "enemy", organized by Ankara, are the Syrian Turkmens. For whom are the representatives of this third largest country in the country at war? How were they involved in someone else's game? What is in store for him in this game?

Ankara began to help fellow tribesmen back in the 90s, when the organization of mutual aid for the oppressed "Bayir-Budzhak" was established.

In 2011, the "Syrian Turkmen Movement" is also being created, the purpose of which is to encourage the people to participate in the uprising against Assad.

Several bureaus are being set up in the cities of Turkey and on the border with fixed "zones of responsibility": the uprising in Aleppo is led from the Gazantep office, rebels in Latakia from Yayaladagh, insurgents in Al-Rakkah from Akjal.

In addition, the "Syrian Democratic Turkmen Movement" controls the activities of the opposition in Syria. Among the planned measures of the organization - the release of the press in their native language, the creation of radio, schools. The goal of the activists is the Turkization of the northern lands of Syria, which in future can allow demanding separation, autonomy and the accession of lands to a neighboring, "friendly" country.

Syrian Turkmens create their own army, actively interacting with rebel bandit groups. At the moment there are 14 paramilitary units. They are united in the "Brigade of the Turkmen Mountain". The militants of Latakia are commanded by Muhammad Awad, in Aleppo the military commander of the insurgents is Ali Bashar.

Although the paramilitary groups have been fighting government forces, the Kurdish militia and the IGIL since 2012, the leader of the Mejlis declared the need to form a Turkmen army in Syria in August 2015 officially. The army must protect the people from ethnic cleansing carried out by the enemy, expelling them from the inhabited cities. So the cleansing of Syrian Turkmens by Kurds in the town of Tell Abyad forced twenty thousand people to flee. The troops of Assad also expelled them from Homs, Raki and other cities.

The number of the alleged army was estimated at 5,000. As part of opposition organizations there are 1 thousand. Most likely, the servicemen from the Turkish special forces were to be extradited to the militia.

Turkish gambit

I must say that the goals of the Syrian insurgents and Ankara are somewhat divergent.

First, the oppositionists do not accept the Ankara project, which provides for the federalization of the country. Interested special services are forced to consider that their wards prefer a "single Syria". Thus, to please the latter, Ankara undertook the creation of the project "Syrian Turkmen Platform", at the constituent conference of which the rebels were promised all kinds of support. Some Turkish businessmen have already joined the project, having planned for themselves further participation in the policy of the country, freed from Assad.

Secondly, the activity of the IG, against which the Turkmen factions are fighting, is profitable for Ankara. In fact, having launched an attack on a Russian aircraft in November 2015, Turkey supported the IG. According to reliable data, its public funds and organizations render IG considerable assistance. Ankara exercises control over strategically important border segments that allow oil transit from the IG-controlled areas to Turkey, and from there the transit of goods, weapons and uniforms necessary for the militants is supported on the IG lands.

It is very important for Ankara to control the Turkmen population and support anti-government sentiments in it.

In fact, the people are hostage to the foreign policy aggression of Ankara. With its submission, he became a participant in a bloody conflict.

Military strikes against Syrian Turkmen by Asad, Kurds and IG troops lead to huge casualties and an increase in the number of refugees among them. Ankara, in this situation, has certain political dividends.

Rumors about the genocide of the Turkmen people, conducted by the Assad clan allegedly in order to give the fertile lands to the Alawites - their co-religionists, Ankara emphasizes its role as a defender of the oppressed kinship. Thus, the government seeks to enlist the support of its citizens in the confrontation with the ruling Syrian regime.

The new enemy, who was received from the "easy" submission of neighbors, the Syrian Turkmens - Russia. And they have no choice but to fight with her.

What's next?

According to Reuters, since the beginning of the operation in Syria (September 2015) in the framework of helping President Assad before the tragic day of the Russian pilot 's death (November 24), Russia bombed Syrian Turkmens 17 times. According to the representative of the Russian military department, in the vicinity of the cities of Kesladshuk, Salma, Gham, where the majority of the population are representatives of this people, the rebel militant groups that are fighting with the incumbent president are concentrated, and with the help of air strikes it was possible to destroy the bunkers with stored ammunition, command posts, plant , On which the belts of martyrs were made.

According to journalists, the result of the Russian bombardment was a significant number of civilian casualties, thousands of families fled to the border.

On November 24, the Turkish Air Force, under the pretext of violating the border, shot down the Russian SU-24. Representatives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation deny the violation of the border. The bomber fell from her a few kilometers in the territory of Syria. From the ground, from the location of the Turkmen group, by catapulted Russian pilots opened fire. The commander was killed, the navigator was rescued. As a result of the mortar shelling of the Mi-8 helicopter, a marine contracted infantryman was killed.

The day after the incident, the President of the Russian Federation announced the operations against the IG carried out by Russian bombers in Latakia (the place where the gangs were concentrated).

The President of Turkey stated that exclusively peaceful people live in this area and Ankara has an obligation to protect them.

According to Western journalists, after the incident, the bombing of Syrian Turkmen by Russian aviation acquired a massive character. According to witnesses, such intensity of air strikes was not from the beginning of the war. The Russian aviation in Latakia destroyed the positions of the "Free Syrian Army" and the housing of ordinary citizens.

Military actions forced more than seven thousand people to leave their homes. According to Anadolu, in search of more peaceful areas in the last days of November last year, more than two thousand representatives of the people fled to the south of the patron country.