Evaluating the new era in Syria, International Relations Expert Assoc. Prof. Dr. İbrahim Arslan said, “Despite being composed of five different groups, the coordinated and disciplined movement of these groups, the weapons and methods they use, reveal that HTS is militarily guided by a state mentality.”
Assoc. Prof. Dr. İbrahim Arslan said, “The government to be established in Syria must be based on Syria's integrity, and the country should not turn into a federal or confederal structure. Syria's new constitution should strongly emphasize human rights and aim to build a secular and integrated Syria.”
Assoc. Prof. Dr. İbrahim Arslan, Head of the Üsküdar University Political Science and International Relations Department, evaluated the new era in Syria.
How was the Assad regime overthrown in 12 days?
Assoc. Prof. Dr. İbrahim Arslan reminded that the operation launched on November 27, 2024, by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which controls Idlib, one of the de-escalation zones in Syria within the Astana process, with some elements of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, successfully ended 12 days later, on December 8, 2024, with the capture of Damascus and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's departure from the country, and continued:
“We need to evaluate what is happening in Syria along with other developments in the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine War. As is known, immediately after HAMAS launched its Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7, 2023, HAMAS became unable to effectively respond to Israel's attacks against HAMAS and Palestinians in Gaza, which have continued for over a year. Upon HAMAS losing control, Israel immediately launched an attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon, one of Iran's most important supporters. Israeli attacks targeting Hezbollah's command structure were also successful here. Due to the intense support of Western countries to Ukraine, Russia's war against Ukraine, which it could not end, forced Russia to reduce its forces on the Syrian front. Due to these developments, the Assad regime, unable to receive sufficient support from Iran and Russia, withdrew its forces from Aleppo, leaving the city's administration to the PYD/YPG, an offshoot of the PKK. HTS, believing it was time to act, launched an advance, and the Assad regime was overthrown within 12 days.”
Arab regimes were not drawing their power from the people…
Noting that Arab regimes established in the Middle East after World War I did not derive their power from their people and needed external support to maintain their existence, Assoc. Prof. Dr. İbrahim Arslan said,