The catastrophic earthquake forces all sides to rethink
by Karin Leukefeld,* Beirut
(21 February 2023) The UN Security Council addressed the situation in Syria on Monday afternoon (NY local time) [13 February]. A “private meeting” and “non-public consultations” focused on how to get more aid to earthquake-affected areas in northern Syria and Syria’s coastal region as quickly as possible. In a preliminary report by the panel, in addition to a chronology of events since 6 February 2023, various positions were outlined that called for the Syrian government to open more border crossings from Turkey into north-western Syria.
In fact, the border between Syria and Turkey is not controlled by Syria except for one border crossing near Kassab in the west. All border crossings are controlled by Turkey and armed fighters allied with Turkey.
West puts pressure on Damascus
The UN Security Council should pass a new resolution to open another “one or two border crossings”, as US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield called for in an interview with US broadcaster MSNBC. Support came from the head of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), António Vitorino. He told US broadcaster CNN that opening more border crossings was fundamental to the success of aid operations.1
by Western donor countries because it would involve the suspension of “unilateral
punitive measures”. (Picture Lama Khaly)
UN under pressure
The UN is under pressure to meet the interests of the rich Western donor countries in order to get at least a commitment from them to fund the necessary relief operations in Syria. The largest donors for humanitarian aid to Syria are the USA, Germany and the European Union. These lobbyists-, known as “stakeholders”, want to open as many border crossings into Syria as possible in order to transport goods from abroad into areas controlled by armed government opponents, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2672 (9 January 2023). Security Council Resolution 2672 was renewed for 6 months on 9 January 2023, authorising humanitarian aid deliveries through the Bab al Hawa border crossing into northern Idlib province, which is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The organisation emerged from the Nusra Front, the Syrian offshoot of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. The UN, media, politicians and international aid organisations are talking about aid for Syria’s “northwest”.
UN Security Council Resolution 2672 rules out the Syrian government authorising and controlling such supplies. This de facto suspends Syria’s sovereignty. The dispute over this issue in the UN Security Council has been going on for years. The Syrian government, with the support of Russia and China in the UN Security Council, has been calling for an end to “cross–border aid” for years, offering to organise the distribution of aid to all parts of the country from Syria. Aid to the earthquake zones can well be delivered via the airports of Damascus, Aleppo and Latakia. The major donor countries reject this because it would involve the suspension of the “unilateral punitive economic measures” (also called sanctions) they have imposed on Syria.
US nuclear weapons in the earthquake zone in Turkey
NATO has decided on aid for Turkey after the earthquake. General Christopher G. Cavoli will lead the operation, it said in a statement (9 February 2023). More than 1400 forces from more than 20 NATO countries and 30 allied states will be deployed, as reported in the US military magazine “Stars and Stripes”. (https://www.stripes.com/theaters/europe/2023–02–08/turkey–earthquake–nato–9074659.html)
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO stood firmly by its ally Turkey. Accordingly, NATO is supplying shelters that are normally used as mobile headquarters during manoeuvres or operations. They are to supplement the winter-proof tents already supplied “by allies and associates”. (https://reliefweb.int/report/turkiye/earthquake–response–nato–deploy–shelter–facilities–turkiye)
NATO has 24 military bases in Turkey. Incirlik is about 10 km from Adana and is currently home to about 2000 US soldiers, civilian employees and several hundred British soldiers. According to the US, none of the soldiers were injured in the earthquake. The base is currently used for earthquake relief, the number of daily take-offs and landings has tripled, and the US army is also increasing deliveries of military material. Adana is Turkey’s fifth largest city and has been badly affected by the earthquake. According to the Pentagon, the Incirlik military base plays a “central role in supporting conflicts in the southern NATO area of operations”. There are 50 US tactical nuclear weapons stationed at the base. (https://www.military.com/daily–news/2023/02/06/us–reports–no–injuries–incirlik–air–base–after–massive–earthquake–turkey.html)
Other NATO bases are located in Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep, in Diyarbakir, Mardin, Sanliurfa and Iskenderun (Navy). It is not known how badly these bases were affected by the earthquake. (https://east–usa.com/us–military–bases–in–turkey.html)
In 2012, NATO deployed Patriot missile defence systems in Adana, Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep: The Netherlands was stationed in Adana, Germany in Kahramanmaras and the USA in Gaziantep. The German deployment ended in January 2016.
(Karin Leukefeld, Beirut)
crossings on the northern border. In fact, these are under the control of Turkey
and its allied fighters. (Picture Lama Khaly)
Aid deliveries are politicised
In Syria, humanitarian aid has been coordinated with the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) since the beginning of the war (2011). This is not easy because the war has created areas in the northwest (Idlib, Afrin, Azaz) and northeast (Hasakeh, Rakka) that are under the control of armed government opponents supported from abroad (Turkey, USA, etc.). Aid operations for the people living in these areas, including many internally displaced persons, have been and are being politicised. It is not easy for the UN and ICRC to maintain their neutrality in this climate.
Never has humanitarian aid to people in need been so politicised as in the aftermath of the massive earthquake that devastated vast areas of south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria and along Syria’s Mediterranean coast on 6 February 2023. Immediately after the enormity of the earthquake became clear, Ankara and Damascus turned to the United Nations for help. But it was mainly Turkey that received it. At the US State Department press conference on the day of the earthquake, a journalist asked spokesman Ned Price whether it would not be a “great gesture” if the US government offered help to the Syrian government. And whether it would not also be a gesture to “lift the sanctions that are basically suffocating Syria”.
Price replied that it would be “quite ironic, if not counterproductive [...] for us to reach out to a government that has brutalised its people for a dozen years now, gassing them, slaughtering them, and being responsible for much of the suffering they’ve endured.” He said the US had “humanitarian partners on the ground” who could provide necessary assistance. These had been active in Syria “since the earliest days of the civil war” and the US would provide them with “significant amounts of humanitarian assistance”.2
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressed almost identical sentiments, telling journalists in Berlin that in Syria, “where the people under the Assad regime cannot hope for any help”, the US supports humanitarian partners on the ground and will continue to “push for humanitarian access”.3
A look at the website of the German Foreign Office, where the aid measures for the earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria are explained, shows who these “humanitarian partners” are, who are to be provided with “substantial amounts” of aid by Washington and Berlin. The photo shows staff of the “White Helmets”, who call themselves the “Syrian Civil Defence”. In numerous videos and interviews, they stated that neither the UN nor the Syrian government were sending aid.
The government in Damascus agreed last Friday (10 February 2023) to deliver aid to all areas affected by the earthquake. All aid deliveries inside Syria are being led by the UN and ICRC and carried out jointly with the Syrian Red Crescent.4
On Sunday (12 February 2023), a UN spokesperson said humanitarian aid was being held up from government-held areas in the Islamist-held province of Idlib. He said the extremist group Hay'at Tahrir a-Sham (HTS) was refusing permission for the aid to be delivered from Damascus.5
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) since the war began (2011).”
(Picture Lama Khaly)
Two more border crossings open for emergency aid
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths told the UN meeting on Monday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had agreed to open two border crossings, Bab al Salam and al-Rai. This avoids the debate on a new UN Security Council resolution. The opening is initially limited to three months. Syria’s UN Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh told journalists in New York that Idlib is part of Syria and that aid must reach all people. When asked why the border crossings had not been opened more quickly, Sabbagh pointed out that Syria does not control this border.
In fact, the opening of Syrian-Turkish border crossings has been the subject of negotiations between Turkey and Syria for months. Turkey is seeking normalisation with Syria, which is supported by Russia and Iran. In return, Turkey demands Syria’s support in the fight against the PKK. In the form of the People’s Defence Forces (YPG/YPJ) as the determining force of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDK) it claims a kind of autonomous region “Rojava” in north-eastern Syria with the support of the USA.
The Turkish-Syrian rapprochement had recently been considerably disrupted by the US administration in Washington. During a visit by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to Washington in mid-January, US Secretary of State Blinken had called on Cavusoglu to abandon the “unsavoury” rapprochement with Syria. An already scheduled meeting of the two foreign ministers of Turkey (Cavusoglu) and Syria (Faisal Mekdad) in Ankara had been cancelled. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov then invited both foreign ministers to meet in Moscow.
The catastrophic earthquake is now forcing all sides to rethink.
| * Karin Leukefeld studied ethnology as well as Islamic and political sciences and is a trained bookseller. She has done organisational and public relations work for, among others, the Federal Association of Citizens' Initiatives for Environmental Protection (BBU), the Green Party (federal party) and the El Salvador Information Centre. She was also a personal assistant to a PDS member of parliament in Germany (foreign policy and humanitarian aid). Since 2000, she has worked as a freelance correspondent in the Middle East for various German and Swiss media. She is also the author of several books on her experiences from the war zones in the Middle East. |
(Translation "Swiss Standpoint“)
2 https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-february-6-2023/
4 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/10/quake-hit-syria-approves-aid-delivery-to-rebel-held-areas
5 https://www.reuters.com/article/turkey-quake-syria-rebels-idAFS8N33G001