Supervisors info:
Ιωάννης Θ. Μάζης, Καθηγητής.Τμήμα Τουρκικών Σπουδών και Σύγχρονων Ασιατικών Σπουδών. Σχολή Οικονομικών και Πολιτικών Επιστημών. Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών.
Ιωάννης Ε. Κωτούλας. Διδάκτωρ. Τμήμα Τουρκικών Σπουδών και Σύγχρονων Ασιατικών Σπουδών. Σχολή Οικονομικών και Πολιτικών Επιστημών. Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών.
Άγις Γ. Δήγκας. Διδάκτωρ. Τμήμα Τουρκικών Σπουδών και Σύγχρονων Ασιατικών Σπουδών. Σχολή Οικονομικών και Πολιτικών Επιστημών. Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών.
Summary:
The present master's thesis studies the redistribution of power resulting from the implementation of the geopolitical factor of Turkey's Grand Strategy in the field of conflicts on the territory of Syria and as it was carried out through the main military operations of Turkey during the period between 2012 and 2020.
A proxy war is raging in Syria, which has turned from a civil war into a regional armed conflict on a global scale due to the military involvement of geopolitical actors with interests in the region including the USA, Turkey, Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran, France and Qatar.
The geographical space which is affected by the specific geopolitical factor are the Turkish-Syrian borders and the wider area. The main subject studied is Turkey’s effort towards the establishment of a Safe/ Buffer Zone inside the territory of Syria in order to contain Kurdish sovereignty and expansion in the region.
The Buffer Zone development was carried out with significant changes and the success rate was ranging during time depending on the military operations’ result but is mainly located in northern Syria and specifically on the Kurdish territories, since the Kurdish forces on those grounds close to the borders, is the existential fear of Turkey.
Since 2015, President Erdogan has activated a more extroverted and clearly more aggressive Grand Strategy, as Turkey seeks to face its own threat fronts outside its own borders and more specifically on the territory of its enemy countries. Gradually these military interventions clarify the real content of his perception of "zero problems with neighbors". At the same time, it seeks to open its external fronts, consolidate its internal affairs and alleviate its internal problems, while seeking to increase President Erdogan's popularity through nationalism and Islamism.
Turkey, having since then organized its National Power and while exercising hard and soft power, is trying to apply the “perception of the crescent moon” on the external fronts, exerting pressure on the operational front and at the same time applying parallel "hits" on the diplomatic and political-economic fronts from the side. The possible parallel fronts of conflict for Turkey are the Kurds (internal and external front), Greece-Cyprus, Syria, Iraq, Armenia.
The study of the case of Turkish intervention in Syria, hopes to lead to a better understanding of Ankara's strategy, in terms of pursuing its goals outside its borders and their implementation in the territories of other countries.
The policy pursued by Erdogan under Davutoglu's guidance on Syria was aimed at ousting President Assad on the one hand and moving to a new government under the control or directly composed of members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Turkey has faced strong resistance from many geopolitical actors while pursuing its goals such as Iran, the Kurds and more, resulting to the need of investing more military forces, as well as time, than originally planned. The prolonged military intervention also created detrimental factors for Turkey that it is unable to fight until 2020.
The weakened power of President Assad from 2011 to 2015, led to the strengthening of the Kurdish factor around the Kurdish cantons in northern Syria. The so-called Kurdish PYD movement, was further strengthened and could be the beginning of a Kurdish state, which is an issue of existential threat to Turkey, as it would mobilize the Kurdish issue within it, calling into question and threatening its borders and part of its territories.
The current thesis attempts to create the model of power redistribution, resulting from the geopolitical analysis of the Turkish Grand Strategy, which is the geopolitical factor under study, through the military operations which were carried out on the Syrian territory grounds, but also through configuration actions affecting the ethnic and religious characteristics- in the wider area of the Turkish-Syrian borders.
Keywords:
Syria, Turkey, Middle East, Grand Strategy, Safe Zone, Buffer Zone, Geopolitics, Davutoglu Doctrine, Davutoglu’s foreign policy doctrine,Turkish military operations, Kurds, Islamic State, Islamist terrorist organizations, intervention in Syria, war Syria, civil war Syria
