Over two years have elapsed since the Syrian uprising began, yet Bashar al-Assad remains in power defying all of Turkey’s expectations. Ankara continues to insist that Assad must go but is seen to have no real answer to how this conflagration on its borders is to be doused. The meeting in Istanbul on April 23 by the core members of the “Friends of Syria” Group, on the other hand, produced nothing noteworthy.
Meanwhile the number of Syrians taking refuge in Turkey has reached at least 300,000, according to the International Crisis Group, which, in its latest report named “Blurring the Borders: Syrian Spillover Risks for Turkey,” predicts that “this number could triple this year and prove unsustainable.”
Ankara’s inability to find a new approach to the crisis, when combined with the widespread belief in Turkey and the region that the Erdoğan government has been pursuing a Sunni based policy in Syria, is also continuing to fuel anti-Turkish sentiments among Shiites across the region.
The Turkish media does not appear to see it as worth reporting on. but family members of Lebanese Shiites abducted by the Syrian opposition elements nearly a year ago near Aleppo, as they were trying to return to their country after a pilgrimage to Iran, continue to protest outside the Turkish Embassy and Turkish Airlines office in Beirut.
They are accusing Turkey of not doing enough to secure the release of their loved ones with some even suggesting that Ankara is somehow complicit in these abductions because of its support of the Sunni-led Syrian opposition. The Erdoğan government says it is doing all it can to help but has failed to convince the Shiite community in Lebanon of its sincerity so far.
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