It has been five days since Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi went missing after he visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to complete the necessary paperwork in order to marry his Turkish fiancé Hatice Cengiz. He has not been seen since then, although the Saudi consulate insists he left the building on Oct. 2 and that they were informed about his disappearance through media reports.
There are two ongoing military processes in which the Turkish army has been heavily involved in Syria: Manbij and Idlib.
It is no exaggeration to describe President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s three-day state visit to Germany as historic given the complicated context of the relationship between Berlin and Ankara, particularly in the last few years.
The deal between Turkey and Russia on Idlib has multiple consequences. It perfectly avoided – for now – an imminent military offensive by the Syrian army into the northwestern province of Syria, home to nearly three million people as well as armed moderate opposition groups and jihadist terrorist organizations.
Turkey’s diplomatic campaign to avert a massive operation into the Idlib province of Syria by the Syrian government had begun long before the Tehran summit in which Turkey, Russia and Iran participated on Sept. 7.
Turkey held parliamentary and presidential elections on June 24 which resulted in a victory for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who gathered 52 percent of the votes in the first round. He announced his cabinet on July 9, marking the launch of the presidential governance model that replaced the 95-year-old parliamentary system.
The appointment of James Jeffrey as the United States State Department’s special envoy to Syria and his first visit to the region say lot about the new Washington approach on the Syrian question. Jeffrey, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Ankara between 2008 and 2010 and to Baghdad between 2010 and 2012, is a senior American diplomat with vast knowledge on the region.
The last few weeks have observed a hectic Syria diplomacy between relevant regional actors and global powers over a potential large-scale military operation into the rebel-held Idlib province.
Ankara’s number one agenda item is economy and the unstoppable plunge of the Turkish Lira. In second place is the Syrian army’s impending large-scale military operation into the Idlib province of Syria, an enclave under the control of the armed opposition as well as jihadist terrorist groups.
