The Track Record of Chemical Weapons in Syria
Despite the arrival of United Nations (UN) inspectors at Syria to investigate the claims that the Bashar al Assad regime uses chemical weapons against civilians and opponents, the Assad forces coordinated a chemical attack against the East Ghouta area in the Damascus suburb today and that has opened a new round of discussions about the track record of chemical weapons use in Syria.
More
Syria in the Middle of Violence
SETA presents the analyses of SETA experts on Syria in order to better understand Syrian civil war which cost more than 100 thousand lives, injured more than 2 million people and displaced many others.
More
This is a complex conflict; it is not simply black and white. In order to fully understand what is happening in Syria, every aspect of the conflict must be considered including the actors both inside and outside the state.
Turkey is the only actor that stands to spoil the neo Sykes-Picot. It appears that it will be impossible for al-Assad to regain his power in Syria as long as Turkey maintains its position.
The analyses over the US policy in Syria have started to concentrate on the US gains if the Syrian crisis drags out rather than on the risks Washington will face.
The Arab Gulf countries have caused the prolongation of the Baath regimes life by not providing strong support to the Syrian opposition and by instigating segregations.
SETA Panel: "Syrian Revolution at its Third Year"
On March 22, a panel on the Syrian Revolution was organized and hosted by the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) in Ankara. Panelists were two leading figures of the Syrian opposition.
More
What Lies Ahead in the Post-Al-Assad Future?
What are the chances that the actual object of fear is a stable post-al-Assad Syria? In the aftermath of turmoil and chaos, the newly achieved stability is expected to rest upon a Sunni demographic with a hint of Islamist politics.
More
Having lost its hold on the majority of the country, the al-Assad regime is now ensconced in Damascus.
Turkey in 2013 will have the potential to stand out as an island of political stability and security both regionally and globally.
It would be accurate to interpret the United States and the Wests increasing interest in Syria as a rush to secure a role in the scenario in which the Baath regime is nearing its end.
Trade relations between Turkey and Russia indicate that divergence between these two countries regarding the resolution of the Syrian crisis has not deeply influenced the relations between the two.
If the Kurds want to realize their demand they must first become one of the main actors of the resistance movement to depose al-Assad in a way that does not leave room for doubt.
Another approach to the analysis of the Syrian crisis is to acknowledge the massacres committed by the Assad regime, but in the end, to own up the analyses mentioned above.
A country which really wants to engage in a war would not have carried out an active diplomacy with Syria for six months and with international community for thirteen months.
Turkey’s definitive stance on the issue shifted the Syrian resistance’s regional dynamics and event the faith of the Syrian regime.
Had Erdoğan supported the Baath regime or had he remained a spectator, as the opposition demanded, it would have taken him only months to do the political harm to himself that his adversaries could in decades.
Does the PKK, in the context of Turkey’s Kurdish question, intend to lay down its arms under any circumstance?
The transformation of peaceful protesters into armed revolutionaries was triggered not by choice, but by necessity and obligation.
High-ranking officers who were killed in the blast in Syria also took away the regimes immunity, the mutual trust of those in the regimes inner circle and the loyalty of the army.
Syria and Israel are two semi-states which base their identities on pretended hostility.
