Turkey rises as a regional power in Syria

The fall of the Assad regime has led to a major geopolitical shift in the east Mediterranean, with Russia humiliated as a global power and Turkey elevated as a regional one

A Syrian boy climbs over a decapitated statue of Hafez al Assad, Bashar al Assad’s father

By any standard, the fall of Bashar al Assad was extremely fast. The Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) group took control of Aleppo on November 30 after a short fight, despite Russian air strikes against rebel command posts and troop concentrations. By December 4 it had consolidated its control over the city sufficiently to begin marching on Hama, which fell the following day, followed by Homs on December 7. Damascus toppled on Sunday December 8.

“What was surprising was the inability of the Syrian army and the speed of developments in Syria, which were unexpected, and this was not only unexpected for Iran, but also for many countries in the region,” asid Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi. Only days earlier, he had visited Assad in Damascus. “We were aware of the plot that was going on; we even knew how many troops were trained and organized,” Araghchi said. “Last week, we discussed the information with Mr. Bashar al-Assad, and he himself was stunned by the state of his own army and the lack of motivation in the army.”