Golf club diplomacy: Syria’s bid to rejoin global arena

Antalya Forum talks warn Israeli strikes now top danger to rebuilding efforts

Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a resort in Belek, Antalya, Turkey. Photo: Syrian Presidency

The Montgomerie Maxx Royal golf resort straddles Turkey’s Mediterranean coastline and is usually a haunt for holidaymakers keen to ace its 18-hole course.

This weekend, though, it was the scene of rather different meetings, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin welcomed Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara with smiles and handshakes, against a rather incongruous backdrop of photos of golf club-wielding sportsmen.

Mr Al Shara and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani were on the coast to attend the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, an annual event hosted by the Turkish government. Western leaders were few in attendance, but its participant list was a roll call of top officials from Middle Eastern, African, Asian and Eastern European countries: think Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Sudanese Army Chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.

Mr Al Shara was accompanied by his wife, Latifa Al Droubi, who met Turkish first lady Emine Erdogan. Ms Al Droubi faced criticism from conservatives online for wearing brightly coloured clothes at the forum, prompting a backlash of support from Syrians, who reminded critics that the visit’s achievements were more important than what she was wearing.

For Mr Al Shara and Syria, the forum appeared a genuine opportunity for diplomacy rather than public appearances. His delegation arrived and left as discreetly as possible given the media scrum around the event, and he did not give a speech or even a short press briefing.

As well as Mr Erdogan, the Syrian delegation met the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman, Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani, President of Iraq’s Kurdistan region Nechirvan Barzani and the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.

“I think the international community wants to see Syria normalised,” a Turkish diplomatic official told The National after the forum. The aims of the Syrians' meetings with so many leaders were part of efforts to get sanctions lifted and for nations to restore diplomatic ties with Damascus, according to the official. Some countries have begun to reopen their embassies in the Syrian capital, although many have not done so after severing relations under the former Assad regime.

Although Mr Al Shara did not give a public address in Antalya, Syria was a key topic on the conference agenda. Some criticised the absence of Syrians themselves, especially Syrian women, in a panel dedicated to discussing the country, titled, “Syria: Reconstructing and Reconciling the Country.” Speakers included two UN officials, a Turkish deputy foreign minister, and an American academic – all men.

Foreign Minister Mr Al Shibani had been expected to participate in the Syria panel, but had to depart the conference early, Turkish deputy foreign minister Nuh Yilmaz said.

Israeli escalations

Conversations at the forum on Syria portrayed Israel’s recent escalations in the country as among the greatest – if not the greatest – of the challenges facing the new government in Damascus. Alongside that, Syria is still under sanctions that are preventing it from doing business with the world, and faces threats from insurgents linked to the former Assad regime and the Islamic State group. Turkey also sees militias linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant group designated as a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the US and the EU, as a major threat.

Israeli expansion “is the biggest threat to the Syrian administration right now”, Mr Yilmaz told the Syria panel.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has accused Ankara of wanting to create a “protectorate” in the country, and has bombed locations where Ankara is eyeing posting military assets. The Israeli army also has moved into a UN-patrolled buffer zone in the occupied Golan Heights in south-western Syria and has made incursions beyond that, in moves it says are necessary for its national security.

Mr Yilmaz gave more details on a recent technical meeting between Turkey and Israel in Azerbaijan over preventing an escalation in Syria. “When you use an airspace, you have to communicate with other actors that are actively using that airspace,” he said.

The presence of a deconfliction mechanism is an acknowledgement that Israel will continue to attack and pressure Syria, panel moderator Wadah Khanfar suggested.

“I agree with you,” Mr Yilmaz said. “Under these conditions, the constant invasion from another country is one of the biggest dangers that undermines political legitimacy, that’s why it should stop.”

Turkish officials emphasised Ankara’s keenness for stability and security in Syria, where its influence has soared since the fall of the Assad regime in December and the rise of rebels-turned-leaders who had previously held pockets of territory along the two countries’ land border.

“We cannot allow Syria to be trapped more in instability,” Mr Erdogan said in his main address in Antalya. “We see territorial integrity and stability as the same as our stability.”

Turkey has genuine and valid reasons for a stable Syria: it wants millions of Syrians who sought shelter in the country to be able to go home. It does not want a return to the spillover from the war that manifested as bomb attacks in Turkish cities during 2015 and 2016.

It is seeking joint mechanisms to rebuild the country, partly to create the conditions for such returns, and also so that Syria is not seen as kowtowing to Ankara, analysts say.

“It needs a co-ordinated, joint effort,” Omer Ozkizilcik, an Atlantic Council non-resident fellow, told The National on the sidelines of the forum. “Turkey is betting on this, and is encouraging the Syrian government to reach out more to the Europeans, more to the Arab states. It does not want Syria to be perceived as a Turkish puppet, and is trying to take a step back.”

Others also voiced serious concerns about issues other than Israel at the forum.

Geir Pedersen, the UN’s envoy for Syria, pointed to violence that took place on Syria’s coast last month as a major barrier to long-term stability in the country. Hundreds of people from the Alawite minority, from which Mr Assad hailed, were killed in revenge attacks after regime cells launched an attempted insurgency on new security troops.

“What happened on the coast was a serious setback for Mr Al Shara’s ambitions to have a peaceful solution to conflicts, to have inclusiveness for all communities in Syria, and to make sure that they can continue to develop towards a stable society,” Mr Pedersen said.

There is broad consensus among Arab and European countries and Turkey that “we need Syria to succeed”, he added, but the US is “sitting on the fence” about lifting sanctions. “That means we will not immediately see sanction relief.”