How Turkey is seizing the opportunity

Als Zalkha Hadsch Hussein acht Jahre nach ihrer Vertreibung zum ersten Mal ihr Haus in Tall Rifaat betrat, hing da diese Uniform in einem der Zimmer. „Ich habe sie sofort verbrannt“, sagt die Frau voller Abscheu. In einem anderen Zimmer haben die ungebetenen Bewohner mit schwarzem Filzstift einen Schriftzug an die Wand gemalt: „für die Befreiung und ein glückliches Leben“, steht da noch immer. Hussein schnalzt vor Empörung.

In der Küche sind die Wände verrußt, als habe es dort gebrannt. Überhaupt ist das Haus in einem erbärmlichen Zustand. An vielen Stellen sind Risse in den Wänden notdürftig verputzt. Womöglich sind das Spuren des Erdbebens vom Februar 2023. Hussein kann nur vermuten, was sich in ihrem Haus in den vergangenen acht Jahren abgespielt hat. Als sie vor einer Woche aus einem der Flüchtlingslager zurückkehrte, waren die ungebetenen Bewohner schon geflohen.

Tall Rifaat ist eine Kleinstadt im Norden Syriens. Sie liegt auf halbem Weg zwischen der türkischen Grenze und Aleppo. Während die Welt ungläubig mitverfolgte, wie islamistische Rebellen den Machthaber Baschar al-Assad in Damaskus stürzten, spielte sich in Tall Rifaat ein anderes, kaum beachtetes Drama ab. Türkeitreue Milizen eroberten die Stadt, die seit 2016 unter Kontrolle von kurdischen Freischärlern der „Demokratischen Kräfte Syriens“ (SDF) gestanden hatte. Zwischenzeitlich waren die kurdischen Kämpfer in diesem Teil des Landes von Russland unterstützt worden.

Der Regimewechsel in Damaskus hat nun die Machtverhältnisse in der ganzen Region neu sortiert. Die Türkei ist in das Vakuum vorgestoßen, das Iran und Russland in Syrien hinterlassen haben. In Tal Rifaat kann man erahnen, wie schwer es werden wird, aus dem Flickenteppich Syrien mit seinen verschiedenen Machtzentren wieder ein einheitliches Staatsgebilde zu formen. Zugleich spürt man selbst in diesem entlegenen Winkel Syriens den Aufbauwillen, der das Land seit dem Sturz des Diktators Assad erfasst hat.

Zalkha Hussein und ihr Mann gehören zu den ersten Familien, die nach Tall Rifaat zurückgekehrt sind, seit am 1. Dezember türkeitreue Milizen der sogenannten „Syrischen Nationalen Armee“ (SNA) in die Stadt einrückten. Die Familie ist gerade dabei, den Boden neu zu betonieren. Für die Renovierungskosten habe sie für 3000 Dollar ihren Hochzeitsschmuck verkauft, berichtet Hussein stolz. „Das ist mein eigener Besitz gewesen.“ Ihr Mann gesteht kleinlaut, dass sie es ist, die jetzt den Neuanfang der Familie finanziert. „Wir haben so lange auf diesen Moment gewartet“, sagt die Frau.

Wie die meisten der 60.000 arabischen Bewohner, die vor acht Jahren vertrieben worden waren, lebte sie zwischenzeitlich in einem Lager für Binnenflüchtlinge in der nahe gelegenen Stadt Azaz. Dort habe sie keinen Tag länger bleiben wollen. „Im Winter regnet es rein, im Sommer ist es heiß. Und unsere Kinder sind immer staubbedeckt.“ Die Häuser dort haben keine Dächer, sie sind nur mit Planen abgedeckt. Die Kinder hat Hussein noch dort gelassen, bis es in Tall Rifaat wieder Schulen gibt.

Noch fehlt es an allem. „Die Hälfte der Häuser ist komplett unbewohnbar, ein Viertel renovierungsbedürftig“, sagt Abdul Salam, der für die Öffentlichkeitsarbeit des Lokalrats zuständig ist. Vor einigen Jahren hatten das Assad-Regime und dessen Verbündeter Russland die Stadt mit Luftangriffen verwüstet. In vielen Vierteln gebe es kein Wasser und keinen Strom, sagt Salam.

Als Erstes habe man dafür gesorgt, dass die Bäcker zurückkehren, damit es Brot gibt. Im Büro des Lokalrats steht ein kleiner Ölofen, ein Schreibtisch und ein paar Stühle. Licht gibt es nicht. Eine Gruppe Freiwilliger ist dabei, eine Bedarfsanalyse für die Stadtteile zu erstellen. In der Hoffnung, dass sich Hilfsorganisationen finden, die den Wiederaufbau finanzieren.

At least one is already there: a vehicle from the Turkish religious authority Diyanet Foundation with a Turkish license plate is parked in front of the door. Salam prefers not to say much about Türkiye’s influence. Just this much: “Turkey is our neighbor, it has supported the Syrian people from the beginning.”

For Ankara, Tall Rifaat is about more than charity. Turkey’s aim is to weaken the self-government of the Syrian Kurds so that there are no similar aspirations for autonomy in Turkey. The Kurds had used the turmoil of the Syrian civil war to create their own structures in the area they controlled. Rojava they call it. For the Kurds in Turkey it is a place of longing. The Turkish government is also concerned with pushing back the Kurdish militias, which are allied with the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), from the Turkish border.

Ankara originally wanted to negotiate a buffer zone with Assad. Now it is using the opportunity to create facts itself. In this fight, Turkey is not being squeamish. It bombs civilian infrastructure and allows its militiamen to harass Kurdish civilians. Until two weeks ago, 14,000 Kurds still lived in Tall Rifaat. Many fled there after the SNA captured the city of Afrin in 2018. Now everyone is gone.

“Nobody forced them, nobody oppressed them,” claims the head of the newly created “Committee for Security and Checkpoint Management” in Tall Rifaat. A windy guy with a three-day beard who keeps his name a secret. It is said that he used to work for the secret service and is now a member of the SNA militia. He doesn’t wear a uniform. Just like the young man who made himself comfortable behind the heavy desk in the office without having any apparent task. Everything is still very provisional here.

The security chief’s most important working tool is the committee’s stamp, which he uses to authorize handwritten passes for the checkpoints of the pro-Turkish militias. For example, a shepherd who asks to be allowed to move his 3,000 sheep to another pasture.

The security chief explains that his men created inventory lists immediately after the conquest so that there would be no theft. It is an attempt to establish control in a state-free vacuum. According to his own statements, he issued around a thousand documents within ten days.

The security chief has also issued passes for the fleeing Kurdish residents. The last three families left the city that morning. The local council emphasizes that their own people were sent with them so that they would not be harassed at the militia checkpoints. The local council claims that there are also Kurds in the city.

But a woman who is introduced as such vehemently denies that she is Kurdish. As if to prove it, she emphasizes that she was once imprisoned by the former Kurdish rulers. At least she stayed there when everyone else fled.

In Tall Rifaat, Islamist rebel leader Abu Muhammad al-Golani’s promises to protect ethnic and religious minorities are well known. They join in with this refrain here. But the anger of the returnees against the forces that once drove them out cannot be ignored. Only good things are said in Tall Rifaat about the new rulers in Damascus, 400 kilometers away. Thumbs up, whoever you ask. However, there are no contacts with the transitional government yet. The regime change is too recent. The new forces first have to organize themselves. The SIM cards they use in Tall Rifaat are not even suitable for dialing into the telephone network in Aleppo, fifty kilometers away.

The pro-Turkish militias stormed from Tall Rifaat towards Manbij. This has brought them close to the sphere of interest of the United States. Around 900 American soldiers are stationed on the other side of the Euphrates. They are allied with the Kurdish-led SDF militias because it was primarily the Kurds who stopped the advance of the terrorist militia “Islamic State” (IS). There is great concern that IS could use the turmoil following the fall of Assad to regroup in the desert.

This week, SDF commander Mazlum Abdi warned in American media that his units would no longer be able to protect prisons holding IS inmates if the militias continued to advance. They therefore had to move IS prisoners from Manbij to other prisons. “As Turkish-backed groups advanced toward the city center, units attacked detention centers where both civilians and terrorists were being held,” Abdi told CNN.

The prisons in Raqqa and Hasakah are also threatened. The SDF oversees around ten thousand Islamists in a dozen prisons and controls the al-Hol camp, where around 50,000 relatives, mostly women and children, of IS fighters live.

In an interview with the Sky News channel, Abdi said that the SDF could no longer take action against IS positions because of the fighting with the pro-Turkish militias in the West. Therefore, the Islamists could gain strength in the Syrian desert. If IS had held back in recent years, the terrorist group’s activities in the areas controlled by the SDF have “increased” since the fall of Assad.

Fighting is now also being reported in the city of Kobane, which lies directly on the Turkish-Syrian border. It is considered a symbol of the success of American-Kurdish cooperation. In 2015, Kurdish units with the support of the Americans and Arab allies liberated the city after IS had besieged and terrorized tens of thousands of residents for months.

The pro-Turkish desire for expansion is therefore inconvenient for the Americans. Apparently with American mediation, a four-day ceasefire was negotiated for Manbij. During this time, the Kurdish militias and families are said to have withdrawn from the city. The Americans only promise protection for the area east of the Euphrates. It is unclear whether it will still apply when Donald Trump becomes president in January. He actually wanted to withdraw troops from Syria during his first term in office, but his security advisors apparently changed his mind.

Trump has now again demanded that the United States stay out of Syria. “This is not our fight,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Don’t get involved!” The advance of the pro-Turkish militias probably also has to do with the fact that Ankara is positioning itself for a possible American troop withdrawal.

Until then, President Joe Biden’s government is still trying to contain Turkey. On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Ankara to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Before his arrival, Blinken called the PKK a “continuing threat” to Turkey, but emphasized the importance of the anti-IS coalition, which must continue its work.

At the meeting, Erdoğan announced that he would continue to take action against Kurdish militias in Syria. “Turkey will take preventive measures against all terrorist organizations operating in Syria and posing a threat to Turkey,” the Turkish presidential office said. Voices from Israel are now also being heard calling for the Kurds to be supported in the fight against the pro-Turkish militias.

Ankara’s ambitions are not limited to the north and the border region with Türkiye. The Turkish secret service has had close contacts with Golani and the leading rebels of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham for years. Ankara had supported Golani in steadily expanding his power base in Idlib, from which he prepared the offensive against the Assad regime. On Thursday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sent his intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalın to Damascus. Ankara is wasting no time in asserting its new influence.

The Turkish influence is already noticeable in Tall Rifaat. Here you can now pay with Turkish lira. The only difference is that so far there is hardly anything to buy in the ghost town. Except caramel coffee. Three days ago, two young men set up a self-built wooden café on wheels in the middle of tank wrecks and ruined houses. “We are sons of this city,” says Hassan, one of the owners. “This place needs new life.” That day they sold coffee until the evening. But like everyone here, Hassan hopes that everything will be fine. With God’s help.