“Syrian Issue” in Turkish-US Relations

Abstract

Since the beginning of the civil war in Syria, the United States of America and the Turkish Republic have been active supporters of a replacement of the Syrian government and the resignation of the President B. al-Assad. The search for a solution to the “Syrian issue” has opened up broad opportunities for Turkish-American cooperation. The article observes the most important areas of this interaction and attempts to explain the intensification of the Turkish-American contradictions in the context of the events of recent years in Syria. The twopart structure of the article reflects the logic of Turkish-American relations development as a result of rapid change of the balance of power in Syria and the region. Two phases are clearly visible. AmericanTurkish cooperation, including joint work to strengthen the combat potential of the Syrian opposition, took place in the early stages of the Syrian conflict in 2011-2013. However, by 2014 it was replaced by the two states’ rivalry for influence in the Syrian Arab Republic. The “Kurdish issue” became the main reason for the deepening differences between the allies. It started to determine Ankara and Washington’s behavior to all the participants of the conflict in Syria. Intensification of struggle against terrorism in the Syrian Arabic Republic revealed deep differences in both Turkish and American governments’ approaches towards the key participants of the Syrian conflict. The author concludes that today the United States and Turkey are acting on the Syrian direction based on the unconditional priority of their own national interests, but not the formal allied obligations binding them.

Keywords

• USA
• Turkey
• Syria
• Syrian conflict
• Islamic State
• Kurdish issue
• terrorism