Amr Halabi-Gaziantep
When the international and Arab media were busy covering Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's declaration of war east of the Euphrates three days ago, the Syrian regime's media were busy broadcasting programs and songs that glorified the memory of the “October Tishreen War”.
Although Erdogan's military declaration unleashed a campaign of contradictory statements, statements and positions of the parties to the upcoming battle and the actors of the Syrian file - to the extent of a media war prior to the military operation on the ground - the Syrian regime alone was absent in these developments, although it did not hesitate during his speeches in International or local forums on Turkey's demand to withdraw from Syrian territory.
The media close to that regime hastened to deny the Syrian Democratic Forces' statement that the regime was preparing to move militarily towards Manbij, west of the Euphrates, in response to the military operation. No new instructions.
| Mekdad said the regime would "defend Syrian territory if Turkey launched a military operation" (Reuters) |
After a formal silence of the regime and the media overlooked the coverage of the east of the Euphrates, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad appeared in the first statement counted as an official position of the regime.
Al-Watan newspaper quoted al-Meqdad as saying that the regime would "defend all Syrian territory if Turkey launched any military operation" and would not accept what he called "any occupation of Syrian territory."
Mekdad added - on the sidelines of the farewell ceremony, Saleh Bousha, the Algerian ambassador that what he described as Kurdish militias "have lost everything and they should not lose themselves."
He continued his speech to the forces of "Democratic Syria" in a similar to its call for dialogue that "the homeland welcomes all its people" and that the regime "wants to resolve all Syrian problems in a way away from violence and preserving the soil of Syria."
Repeat statements
Although the statement was the first of its kind after three days of silence for the regime, it was in its entirety addressed to the forces of "democratic Syria" and without confirmation of the rejection of Turkish intervention and intimidation to "confront it." This was present in most of the letters of the previous symbols of the regime.
According to the writer Ahmed al-Saadou, "the Syrian regime follows the Russian policy with regard to the whole Syrian file, and as long as Moscow has the understandings with Ankara in the Syrian file turn a blind eye and even lenient about Ankara's intention to establish a safe zone east of the Euphrates, the Syrian regime does not lift a finger against the vision Russian ally. "
| Preparations of the National Army of the Syrian opposition near Afrin to participate in the Turkish military operation (Anatolia) |
"The regime is not capable of doing anything in front of the Turkish-Russian consensus," he said, citing what happened in the olive branch in Afrin and the Euphrates Shield in northern and eastern Aleppo.
The Syrian writer concludes that "the regime will not trade sovereignty and office in exchange for winning allies and staying in power no matter what happened to the Syrian territory."
Many may agree that the regime is virtually incapable of acting in the face of any regional and international understanding regarding the Syrian dossier, yet the question remains about the absence of official statements of the regime despite its intensity and abundance before the announcement of the forthcoming Turkish military operation. Is this a submission to regional understandings among the Syrian war partners?