Secret ruler

“New Middle East”: What Erdogan has planned for Syria

Pulling the strings behind the scenes to topple the Assad regime: Turkey's President Erdogan.

(Bild: APA/AFP/Adem Altan)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has gained influence in neighboring Syria with the fall of the Assad regime. His motivation: he wants to bring the Kurds there under control. This was also made possible by Israel, which bombed open an air corridor to Iran. An analysis.

Netanyahu and Erdogan, not exactly friends, both claim to have created a "new Middle East". Each in their own way.

It was Israel's elimination of Lebanese Hezbollah and the weakening of Iran that enabled Erdogan to let "his" anti-Assad militias off the leash against Damascus. The Turkish president had repeatedly called his intimate enemy Assad a "murderer" and had taken in more than three million refugees in his country. They can/should now return.