Turkish scholars have strongly condemned Israel's recent airstrikes on Syria as violations of Syrian sovereignty and actions driven by domestic political motives, which is likely to further complicate already tense regional relations.
Israel struck the Abu al-Duhur military airport in Idlib province in northwestern Syria, which caused material damage but no casualties.
Israel said the airstrike was aimed at preventing what it described as a potential Turkish military deployment at the Syrian airbase, which it said would pose a threat to its security. Türkiye has firmly denied any such deployment.
"This kind of attacks, external attacks into Syria territory, which violate the country's sovereignty and also could trigger instability and insecurity in the country. The border security is very crucial for Türkiye. So as long as there is a weak government in Syria, it has also spillover effects, negative effects over Türkiye with regards to border security. And another risk is also the risk of partition in Syria. There was a risk of ethnic and sectarian partition in Syria, but Türkiye is looking for a united, unified, unique Syria, not to have a PKK-controlled Kurdish area in the northeast part," said Oytun Orhan, a senior researcher from the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
As the Israeli parliamentary election on October 27 approaches, Israel's airstrike on Syria may be driven by domestic political needs, Orhan said, noting that showing a tough stance towards Türkiye can serve a political narrative that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly emphasized in recent years. That is, Israel is in a complex and dangerous regional environment, and only a strong leader can resist external threats.
"Türkiye considers Israel's efforts to escalate the situation against Türkiye is to gain more popularity before the elections. There could be such provocations from Israel until the elections in Israel," said Orhan.
The United States on Monday announced massive new economic sanctions against Iran, expanding restrictions to five additional sectors in an effort to increase pressure on and further isolate the country.
Huseyin Bagci, a professor at the Department of International Relations of Middle East Technical University, said that in the context of ongoing tensions between the United States and Iran, the U.S. prefers to avoid direct confrontation between its allies Israel and Türkiye.
"Iranian-American war is still going on, now the American policy of putting economic embargo is also against the international law. Americans now realize that it is not a war that they can go and win it. There is a war with no winners. Both sides are very much suffering under this and now how to find a getaway from this is very important," he said.
"American and Israeli attacks did not bring the victory. On the contrary, they now have much more difficult position. Americans have, yes, the Israelis in the Middle East as one of the allies, but also Türkiye is an ally. The American policy would not see very much that Türkiye and Israel are confronting each other. Israeli policy, so far I can analyze, is a wrong way and it will not bring any political advantage to Israel to choose Türkiye as enemy," he added.
Turkish scholars condemn Israel's strikes on Syria as violation of sovereignty
