Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA/OSO) on November 27 launched an unexpected offensive against Assad regime forces in northwestern Syria, a few hours after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon took effect. 

The next day, they captured Aleppo, Syria's second city. As of December 4, they were targeting another large city, Hama, while the Russian Air Force and the Assad regime hurried to construct a defensive front in the wake of the shock blows suffered in the offensive.

On December 3, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), confirmed that Israel conducted a targeted assassination of Hezbollah leader Salman Nimr Jumaa in Syrian capital Damascus.

Declaring war against Israel, attacking Assad

In November 2022, when Benjamin Netanyahu returned to the post of Israeli PM, bne IntelliNews observed: “At the end of the so-called Arab Spring, which included a series of uprisings and armed rebellions, amid major public tensions between [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and Israel, all threats against Israel in the region were destroyed. Erdogan particularly served for the destruction of Syria.”

In October 2023, after Erdogan commenced his latest cycle of yelping at Israel, this publication added: “Does anyone have a satisfactory answer as to why Hamas has provided Netanyahu with the opportunity to get comfortable in his post for the first time since he returned as Israel’s leader? The Islamists do this kind of unexplainable thing. That's right. Erdogan yells at Israel, but serves for the destruction of Syria.”

In July this year, while Erdogan was once again declaring "war" against Israel, this publication reported: “What does it all mean? It is total baloney, utter drivel. And it should be boring to parrot the same line. However, the same movie is screened in a loop in the media. There is nothing to be done about it.”

The HTS is an offshoot of Al-Qaeda and Islamic State. It was rebranded by the West to be used against the Assad regime. However, it could not avoid re-designation as a terrorist organisation. It dwells under the Erdogan regime’s patronage on the border with Turkey.

The FSA was directly established by the Erdogan regime. The funny thing about both the HTS and FSA, which are dubbed Syrian "opposition" militants and "rebels" by the mainstream media, is that they are not Syrian but foreign mercenaries, brought to Syria to overthrow the Assad regime, starting from 2011.

So, we are again watching the same movie. Erdogan declares "war" against Israel in the media, while attacking Israel’s enemies in Syria.

No battle between Erdogan’s jihadists and Kurds

Right now, observers are watching out for whether Erdogan’s jihadists and Kurdish groups will attack each other, or whether they are moving in coordination.

The Erdogan regime has for a while been holding talks with Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, who remains imprisoned in Turkey. The direction of the latest round of bargaining will be tested out with Erdogan’s latest offensive in Syria.

So far, no significant clash between Erdogan's jihadists and the Kurds has taken place. The Kurds left some territory, including Tal Rifat town, on the western bank of the Euphrates river to the jihadists and the jihadists have busied themselves targeting the Assad regime.

Manbij, held by Kurds, is a key town on the Western Euphrates river. The jihadists have so far kept away from Manbij and headed to Hama, held by the Assad regime, in the south.

Map: The green shows Erdogan’s jihadists. They are currently attacking Hama. Manbij is held by the Kurds, or the yellow, on the western bank of the Euphrates river. The purple is Israel, which captured the Golan Heights to secure water sources.

Nostalgia

In 2011, when the Syria Civil War, which is not actually a civil war, ignited, the Erdogan regime was aiming to conquer Damascus.

Video: Erdogan in 2012: “We’ll go to Damascus soon, inshallah… and we’ll pray at Umayyad Mosque”. Currently, millions of Syrian jihadists are praying at mosques in Turkey.

With their latest "conquests" in Syria, Erdogan's people have revived some old PR campaigns, targeting the "haters".

Photo: A man drapes a Turkish flag on the Citadel of Aleppo.

Aydin Unal, an ex-speechwriter for Erdogan, on December 2, rendered a great service to those among us that wonder who it is that has grown upset about the “reconquest of Aleppo”. 

Unal provided a full list of "haters" in his column for Yeni Safak, an Erdoganist daily owned by Albayrak Holding. So, if you are a jihadist looking for some haters to behead, you have a full list at your disposal.

Litmus test

“We welcomed the reconquest of Aleppo with some caution, but with even more enthusiasm. While the overwhelming majority of the nation rejoiced at the taking of Aleppo, a small part was concerned, they turned up their noses and were even sad,” Unal noted, adding: “The liberation of Aleppo was a litmus test for Turkey.”

According to Unal, if you ask the haters, they would all say: “We are against Erdogan's Syria policy.”

However, it is not like that. These various people choose sides purely based on emotional, ideological or sectarian motives. They are unable to be happy about Turkey or sad about Turkey.

Fortunately, they do not make up single, big percentage blocks of the population and electorate.

Here is the “full list” of haters who have gotten sad and not shared the Turkish nation’s enthusiasm and joy:

Sunni vs Secular and Alevi

1) Republican People’s Party (CHP), the main so-called "opposition" party in Turkey: The party is against Turkey’s active policies abroad not only in Syria, but also in Palestine, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, the Caucasus and the Balkans, and even in the Russia-Ukraine crisis and Azerbaijan’s operation against Armenia.

The timidity hidden behind the “peace at home, peace in the world” approach and the timid foreign policy legacy of Ismet Inonu are influential in this.

(“Peace at home, peace in the world” quotes Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Republic of Turkey. Inonu is Ataturk’s successor. He managed to stay out of World War II and, as a result, was criticised for "wasting an opportunity to reconquer Ottoman lands".)

Although Deniz Baykal, a late chair of CHP, said “Aleppo is a Sunni city”, his talk of Syrian president Bashar Assad through the lens of sectarian fanaticism also casts a shadow over the CHP.

For the most part, due to its close alliance with the pro-Kurdish DEM Party in Turkey, the CHP was disturbed by Aleppo falling into Syrian hands.

(Muslims are divided into two main sects, namely Shia-i Ali (pro-Ali, or only Shia) and Sunni (or Shia-i Muaviye, pro-Muaviye). As is clear from the names, the problem was between Ali, the Prophet Mohammed’s cousin and son-in-law, and Muawiya, the then governor of Damascus during the second half of the 7th century.)

(Majorities of Turks, Kurds and Arabs are Sunni while the Assad regime is Nusayri (a sub-sect of Shia) and there are also Alevis (or Alawis, a separate sub-sect of Shia in Anatolia) in Turkey. Iran is also Shia but it has a totally different approach to being pro-Ali compared to the Alevis in Turkey).

Kurds

2) DEM Party: The PKK/People’s Defence Units (YPG) is the most threatened group when it comes to the capture of Aleppo by the Syrian people.

(The jihadists that captured Aleppo are in fact not from Syria. Meanwhile, the Kurds that live in the YPG region are from Syria.)

With the fall of Aleppo into the hands of the jihadists, the region held by the PKK/YPG on the western bank of the Euphrates river has been isolated.

The pro-Kurdish DEM Party is naturally disturbed by this development. Tuncay Bakirhan, a co-chair of DEM,  described the episode as “geopolitical cunning”. The conquest of Aleppo disturbs DEM the most.

Non-AKP Islamists are still Sunni?

3) Saadet Party (Felicity Party, an Islamist political party in Turkey that opposes the Erdogan regime): Saadet almost arrived at the point where it would change sects in expressing its hostility towards Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Saadet has been siding with Assad, Iran and Hezbollah since the very beginning of the Syrian crisis. It has consistently acted as Iran’s Turkish branch in every related issue.

The new leader of the party has stated that it sees the capture of Aleppo as a “sectarian conflict”. Once again, Saadet stood on Iran’s side.

4) Dogu Perincek and secular nationalists: They automatically stand where China and Russia stand. They sided with the murderer Assad because of Russia's full support for Assad.

They are on Russia's side even in issues where Turkey has its own interest. They were the ones who were most upset and angered by the conquest of Aleppo.

Alevi-Nusayri solidarity

5) Nusayris (Arabian Alevis) in Turkey: Some of them, although not all, are naturally on the side of Assad, with whom they share the same belief. The conquest of Aleppo deeply wounded them.

6) Some Alawis in Turkey: Certainly not all of them, but some of them were destroyed by the conquest of Aleppo. Sabahat Akkiraz made the statement: “They are massacring Alevis, the blood flowing from Sivas to Aleppo is the same and so are those who shed it.”

(In 1993, Islamists set the Madimak Hotel in the Turkish city of Sivas on fire, killing 37 people who were present to attend a Alevi festival. The incident is referred to as the "Sivas Massacre".)

The issue has nothing to do with the Alevis, but they stand by Assad and Iran, who have massacred millions in Syria, through Alevi-Nusayri solidarity.

7) Ja’faris (another Shia sub-sect): Selahattin Ozgunduz, leader of Ja'faris in Turkey, accused the Syrian "opposition" of not being Muslim and of cooperating with Israel after the conquest of Aleppo.

At least some of the Ja’faris in Turkey (if not all of them) choose “Iran” when it comes to deciding between Iran and Turkey.

Disturbed by every Muslim success, secretly sympathising with the PKK

8) The secular-Kemalist-leftist section: They are disturbed by every success of Muslims. Just as they side with Israel, whom they consider secular/Western, against the Muslim Hamas in Gaza, they can side with anyone against the “jihadists” in Syria, even Iran.

There is no doubt that they secretly sympathise with the PKK/ the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Unity Party (PYD) due to its secular image.

On behalf of US-Israel

9) Turkish racists: The conquest of Aleppo opened a door of opportunity for the returning of Syrians in Turkey to Syria. There are "many" of Turkish origin, especially Turkmens, among the "opposition".

However, the Turkish racists’ concern is not Turkey or Turkishness. Since they act on behalf of the interests of the US and Israel, they were very disturbed by a development in Turkey's favour.

Others

10) Others: Gulenists, Iranists, non-native large and small parties and some retired generals were also very upset about the liberation of Aleppo.