DECRYPTION – In a position of strength after the fall of the Syrian dictator, Ankara hopes to play a predominant role in the country.
On January 29, 2014, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, condemning Bashar al-Assad's massacres against his people, swore that he would one day go to the Umayyad mosque in Damascus to pray there. This wish is about to come true, almost eleven years later. The Turkish president is expected in Syria in the coming days for a historic visit. Turkey has long navigated the Syrian issue alone to the point of having to initiate, in recent months, a vain attempt at reconciliation with the indestructible dictator. She emerged as the big winner from the sudden collapse of the regime in early December.
Since the fall of Damascus, the first foreign official to have been able to admire the view of the Syrian capital from the top of Mount Qassioun was Turkish. On Sunday, December 22, it was none other than Hakan Fidan, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ankara, who was invited to share tea in paper cups with Ahmad al-Chareh. Syria's new strongman, leader…
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