Recent histories of Turkey - Syria relations

The first serious conflict between Turkey and Syria, which gained its indendency in 1946, occured in 1957. The Ba'ath Party that had taken power since the second half of the 1960s claimed that Hatay was Syrian land and made propaganda both in the Syrian community and the Arab World. After Turkey decided to initiate the Project of Southeastern Anatolia (GAP), Syria brought up the water conflict issue; accused Turkey of "water imperialism", and consistently provoked the Arab countries against Turkey. Turkey, facing threats from the Arab countries, Syria, Greece and even the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus, formed a strategic association with Israel in this period. To hinder the Southeastern Anatolia Project, Syria, supporting the terrorist groups against Turkey with material and logistics, helped the PKK terrorist organization which has been seriously harming Turkey since 1984. Turkey's association with Israel caused Syria to feel itself encircled. The warning and threat messages on 16th of September 1998 by General Atilla Ateş brought Turkey and Syria to the verge of war. After Adana Agreement signed by the support of Arab coutries and especially with the mediation of Egypt, Syria interrupted its support for PKK and deported Abdullah Öcalan, the Head of PKK. Hence, following the Adana Agreement, the relations between the two countries started to calm down.Bashar Asad, who took over the Syrian government in 2002, started to attribute special importance to relations with Turkey. The imperialist manner of conduct of the US in the Middle East caused Turkey and Syria to become closer after 2002.In 2002, the government in Turkey changed. Until April 2011, numerous agreements have been made between the two countries. Turkey established camps through the Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) in four provinces; and yet, the tragedy in Syria is not just a problem for Turkey. Especially in the Muslim world, every country has to approach the Syrian crisis with conscience to do its utmost to alleviate the pain. On one hand, obviously, it is unlikely and undesired that Turkey alone should interfere to resolve the problem -although this does not mean that any responsibility on the Turkish side should be ignored. On the other, apparently, the Turkish-Syrian relations have lately become prone to increasing instability which is a threat to regional peace.