Security Dilemma in Turkish-Syrian Relations Historical Background and Current Dynamics

Date

2025-01-01

Author

Tür Küçükkaya, Özlem

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This chapter aims to analyze the developments between Türkiye and Syria from a historical perspective and demonstrate how security concerns have dominated the relationship. The chapter will try to show the bilateral problems between the two countries and draw attention to how the international and the regional have played a role in making security the dominant paradigm in the relations. The chapter will study the Türkiye-Syria relations in six periods and in each period will try to show the main developments that fed into a security-dominated relationship. While some issues, like the Hatay issue, have continued to mar relations since the 1930s, the Cold War rivalry has also prevented good relations. New security concerns have been added over time, like the water problem and most importantly the PKK terror. The two countries lived through a honeymoon period in the first decade of the 2000s due to common regional and international concerns and the AKP governments’ positive approach towards the Middle East and Türkiye’s neighbors. However, this cooperative period remained rather short-lived, and security concerns made a comeback as Syria slid towards a civil war from 2012 onwards. This chapter will try to demonstrate the dominance of security issues in bilateral relations and underline the continuities from the past decades, as well as changes in the current context.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/114838

Collections

Department of International Relations, Book / Book chapter