Turkey’s relationship with Syria has always been complex. Under Ottoman rule, Istanbul sent walis, or governors, to various parts of the empire and mostly let them run their own show. Damascus, however, was governed directly by Istanbul, a sign of how crucial the Ottomans thought Syria was.
When the Ottoman Empire came to an end, relations between Turkey and Syria became tense. The Turks persuaded the French, Syria’s new masters, to give them the Iskenderun province in 1939. The loss of the predominantly Arab province still grates against Syrian feelings. Adding injury to the insult, Turkey refused to reach an agreement with the Syrians concerning water from the Euphrates.
The Syrians retaliated, aiding and abetting Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Damascus not only granted asylum to PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, but also allowed him to set up training camps in Al-Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. In the late 1990s, Turkey couldn’t take it any longer. It deployed its troops on the Syrian border and sternly told Damascus to stop aiding the PKK. President Hafez Al-Assad played it safe, deporting Ocalan and closing down PKK facilities.
Bidding on Turkey.
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