Turkish-Qatari dispute may break apart the Syrian opposition

by Alaa Halabi

The opposition known as the “Syrian Coalition” is experiencing difficult days. After Turkey began a large-scale arrangement process in its corridors, which was manifested in the dismissal of its leader, Salem al-Maslat, by 14 members, followed by the withdrawal of an opposition bloc in protest against the decision, which it considered "arbitrary", at a time, a great rift emerged between the wings of the opposition affiliated with several parties, most notably the Qatari wing, which saw what was happening as a "coup to monopolize the opposition." Amid the current state of tension between opposition members and bodies, the parties began exchanging accusations of dependence, even on the “regime” (the Syrian government), which some considered “signaling the disintegration of the opposition and the collapse of the coalition.” Others think the opposition will come out of the political context sponsored by Ankara, which is represented by the tracks of the Constitutional Committee and Astana.”

During the last period, a clear rift emerged between the Turkish and Qatari positions regarding the performance of the Syrian opposition, as Doha tried to escalate and return to the stage of “overthrowing the regime”, a stage that was bypassed on the international scene. Turkey thinks that Qatar’s new position is biased towards the US position at the expense of Russia, with which Turkey is trying to maintain a balanced relationship.

According to opposition sources, the crisis experienced by the opposition began a few months ago, when Qatar tried to reimpose Riad Hijab, the dissident former Syrian Prime Minister, who announced the holding of a conference to “unify the opposition” in Qatar, before this “conference” was reduced to a mere “dialogue seminar”, due to Turkey’s openly opposing the Qatari efforts.

A Turkish security official met with the leaders of the "coalition" more than once, as the latter's officials received a clear order not to be drawn into the Qatari project, and not to boycott it at the same time, but rather to participate in a symposium.

According to the opposition sources, the "Coalition" and its "Interim Government" sensed the danger of strong Turkish support for "Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham" led by Abu Muhammad al-Julani and its "Salvation Government", especially with Turkey opening the door for al-Julani to expand in the countryside of Aleppo.

In light of the state of great chaos experienced by the factions that receive great financial support, Turkey showed a desire to reduce it, compared to the state of “relative stability” experienced by al-Jolani areas, which do not receive similar support, which turned the latter into a “project that Turkey can build on.”

Turkey began to reduce the budget allocated to the opposition, whether political or even to the fighting factions in northern Syria, which prompted the opposition "coalition" to close its headquarters in Ankara, in addition to stopping several projects in northern Syria, where Turkey's attention focused on building residential communities on lines close to the Syrian-Turkish border, to resettle Syrian refugees who are being pushed out of Turkey with the aim of forming a population belt that trends toward Turkey on the one hand, and to get rid of the largest number of Syrian refugees in Turkey, on the other hand. It seems that the Turkish move harmed the interests of several opponents and opposition bodies, which receive funding from different countries, including the United States, Qatar and some European countries, as their exclusion from the political scene will lead to cutting off funding for them, in light of the futility of this funding.