Erdogan’s dream to control Aleppo

Erdogan’s dream to control Aleppo –

Al Monitor – “Lifting the siege off Kuweires air base constituted the most important military, field and strategic accomplishment since the start of the Russian intervention Sept. 30. This step carries a psychological significance, as it allowed the Damascene regime to free around 2,000 soldiers who had been under siege for two years.” Wassim Bazzi, a political analyst and expert in the field and military situations in Syria, explains.

Kuweires is one of the largest airports in Syria and includes an air academy. It is 25 miles east of Aleppo and is surrounded by a natural water canal on three sides. Controlling Kuweires is an important step toward controlling three villages to the east: Manbij, al-Bab and Jarabulus, Bazzi said. Those towns are important to IS because they are along the Turkish border — meaning they can provide a main crossing place “for all radical militants in the world who come from the Turkish Gaziantep city and enter the Aleppo countryside to reach the IS caliphate capital in Raqqa. The control of Kuweires air base is expected to block the Raqqa-Aleppo road later,” he said.

“The Syrian army would then be able to reach the western and northern countrysides of Aleppo. As a result, the eastern part of the city, which is occupied by militants, would be under the army’s complete siege from both countrysides, as well as from the western Aleppo side controlled by the army also,” Bazzi said.

“Moreover, the total restitution of Aleppo holds a bigger geographic meaning for Syria, as it would foil all projects to divide the country and would kill [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s dream to control Aleppo and Mosul. It would also be a step toward isolating the Turkish side completely from Syria,” he added.

Bazzi concluded, “We should wait for the upcoming field developments. Notably, the Russian military intervention bore its first fruits in Kuweires air base Nov. 10.”

It seems clear that the main ongoing battle in northern Syria is the battle for Aleppo, the second-biggest Syrian city in terms of area and population that is close to Turkey. According to Bazzi, the party that wins this battle will win the fight for Syria.