A unified Syria without Assad is what Turkmen are after

A unified Syria without Assad is what Turkmen are after

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-289267-a-unified-syria-without-assad-is-what-turkmen--are-after.html

12 August 2012 / AYDIN ALBAYRAK, ANKARA

Syrian Turkmen, who stand in support of the territorial integrity of Syria,

Are  concerned that the breakup of the country or the survival of the

Bashar al-Assad regime may leave them exposed to serious threats.

“Syrian Turkmen may come into serious difficulties in either case,”

Tarık Sulo  Cevizci, deputy chairman of the Syria Democratic Turkmen

 Movement, has said.

The representatives of Syrian Turkmen were received for the first

time at the  ministerial level in Turkey on Tuesday, when Foreign

Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu  met with members of the Syria

Democratic Turkmen Movement.

Should the present regime remain in power in Syria, Turkmen

would be targeted  on two counts by the regime. Turkmen are

at the forefront of the resistance,  given the considerable

Turkmen population in places such as Aleppo, Homs  and

 Damascus, where severe clashes have taken place.

And with Turkey’s  anti-Assad stance, Turkmen are viewed

 as unreliable by those in power, whose  anger may focus

 on Turkmen. “Turkmen are seen as an extension of Turkey,

 and they would be made to pay the price,” Cevizci told

Sunday’s Zaman.

A scenario in which Syria would be broken up following the

 fall of the Assad regime  is not at all favored by Turkmen,

 as the population is not so densely concentrated as

 to have an absolute majority in any one part of the country

 but is rather spread

 throughout Syria. In the breakup scenario, three new states

may come into being : a Kurdistan region along the

Turkish-Syrian border, referred to by Kurds as  Western Kurdistan;

a Nusayri state, for which Latakia would be the center, along

 the Mediterranean coast of Syria; and a Sunni Muslim state

in the remaining part  of the country. The first two states

potentially represent a major threat to Turkmen communities.

Should the Kurds move to set up a state in the north of the

country, Turkmen  living in that region would feel themselves

under threat. “The project of Western  Kurdistan has caused

 much anxiety to Turkmen,” Cevizci noted, adding that at

most only 50 percent of the population along Syria’s border

 region with Turkey  is of Kurdish origin, with Turkmen making

 up 30 percent and Arabs estimated  to have a share of 20

 percent of the population of the region, while the area

 from Aleppo to Rakkaq to the Turkish border is a

Turkmen basin. “There are nearly 290 Turkmen villages in

 this region,” Cevizci remarked.

Ziyad Hasan, spokesperson of the Syria Democratic

Turkmen Movement, confirmed the anxiety of Syrian Turkmen

 on the Turkish-Syrian border regarding  the Western Kurdistan

 project of the Kurdish Democratic Union (PYD) -- an

offshoot of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

 Hasan stated to  Sunday’s Zaman, “Turkmen in the region are

 afraid of having to migrate,  being massacred or assimilated

[should the project be realized].” Cevizci’s  outlook is equally

gloomy. “Should a Kurdish state be established in this part

 of Syria, it would be the beginning of the end for Turkmen.”

The theoretical Nusayri state along the Mediterranean coast

 of Syria poses  similar threats to Turkmen. In the region

 surrounding Latakia, the third most concentrated area of

Turkmen habitation after Aleppo and Homs, Turkmen

areas have been under bombardment in the recent past,

together with  Turkmen areas of Hamah. “The Syrian regime,

 in an effort to reserve the  area for Nusayris as part of a

worst-case scenario, has been trying to force  Turkmen out

 of the area,” Hasan maintained. In the area stretching from

 the north of Lebanon to Turkey’s Hatay province, there are

 nearly a hundred  Turkmen villages, and the region has a

Turkmen population of 150,000 to  200,000.

The total population of Turkmen in Syria is estimated to

be around 3 to 3.5  million, of whom around 1 to 1.5 million

are able to speak Turkish. The nearly  2 million Turkmen

remaining, though aware of their Turkish origin, do not speak

 Turkish any longer but Arabic. “It’s because after the Ottoman

 Empire lost Syria,  Turkmen here were not allowed to conduct

 any cultural activities in Turkish, let alone learn their language

 at school,” Hasan noted.

In fighting against the Assad regime, Turkmen want to have

 their say on the future of Syria. But as Turkmen were not

organized when the Syrian National Council (SNC) was founded,

 they are not currently represented in that body and consider

 the council flawed due to the resistance of Arab insurgents to the

inclusion of Turkmen. On the other hand, Turkmen were

 represented in a  committee of 21 representatives that met

last week in Egypt to discuss the  way forward for Syria.

“So Turkmen are now in an equivalent position with  other

 insurgent groups,” Cevizci commented. Hasan expressed hope

 that the council would soon move to include Turkmen.

About three months ago, the Turkmen community in Syria,

 organized under  the Syria Democratic Turkmen Movement,

 established several armed Turkmen  brigades, putting the

community in a better position to fight against the Assad

 regime and to defend the areas they live in.

Humanitarian aid to be distributed by opposition

In the meeting on Tuesday with Turkish Foreign Minister

 Ahmet Davutoğlu,  members of the Syria Democratic

 Turkmen Movement suggested that humanitarian aid

to Syria be distributed through organizations such as

 theirs. “The proposal has been positively received by

 Turkish officials,”  said Hasan, spokesperson of the movement.

 Insurgent organizations, after receiving humanitarian aid at

customs points between Syria and Turkey, would then be

responsible for distributing it among those in need.

“In this way, it may be possible to prevent the probable mass

 migration from Aleppo to Turkey,” Cevizci remarked. Seeking

 refuge from the clashes,  250,000 people, about 100,000

 of them Turkmen, have already left Aleppo for surrounding

 villages, with Aleppo, a city of more than 3 million residents,

experiencing major shortages of staple products such as

 food, baby food, gasoline and diesel fuel, as well as medicine.

 Diesel fuel is 15 to 20 times  more expensive than it used

 to be, and there are long queues for bread in the city.

 “When their stock of food runs out, they will turn to Turkey,”

 Cevizci  noted, communicating the urgency of providing

 humanitarian aid to the Syrian people.