Why does Qatar support the Turkish demographic change project in northern Syria?

Research and preparation: Geostrategic Studies Team

Qatar’s services in Syria (free or for suspicious agendas?)

It is ironic that Qatar is involved in supporting Turkish military operations in northern Syria by providing the necessary funds to establish settlements for Sunni Arabs in the Kurdish regions, even though these Arabs were displaced from their original areas inside Syria under an Iranian-Turkish plan to empty the Sunni Arab region of population in exchange for They were deported to the border with Turkey to be used against the Kurdish forces at a time when Iranian militias are implementing the project of Shiite control over Damascus and the rest of the Syrian regions.

Reports indicate generous Qatari support for extremist groups in Syria (Al-Nusra Front) since 2012, and enabling it to control the rest of the Syrian groups since the beginning of the movement, while Qatari intentions to deport Sunni Arabs appeared during 2015, when it was involved in several deals with the Iranians and Turks to implement change operations. Demographics in the Syrian interior regions, the greatest of which was the deal of the four towns that resulted from the deportation of Sunni Arabs from (Zabadani - Madaya) towards northern Syria and Lebanon and the handing over of the region to the Shiite militias. Qatari officials negotiated directly with the then commander of the Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani.

In addition, Qatar directly contributed to pushing many of the military formations of the Syrian opposition to surrender their positions to the Iranian militias, in exchange for displacing these Syrians, accompanied by armed groups, to the camps that Turkey prepared for the purposes of forming an alternative military force to the Free Army and with Qatari funding, but this time to fight the Kurds. And their joint forces, “Syrian Democratic Forces,” and these developments demonstrated the process of disrupting the firepower of the opposition against the regime and the Iranian militias that had the space and capabilities to expand their circle of control over the Sunni Arab regions.

The Qatari goals were not limited to dispersing the Syrian opposition only, but rather they changed their direction from fighting the regime to supporting Turkish options in fighting the Kurds, and ending the internal confrontations between them after dividing them on the basis of extremists and militants, and providing the necessary support to the Turkish party in using it in a way that serves Turkish national security on the part. And ending any relations between all these groups, including their politicians and military, with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, especially after the outbreak of the conflict between the Arab Quartet with Qatar due to the latter’s involvement in supporting extremist groups, most notably the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Libya and Syria, and causing destabilization of the security and stability of the Arabian Gulf and threatening Its interests are in North Africa and the Middle East.

At the same time, Qatar introduced its various media outlets to promote the Turkish state and its strategies, especially in Syria and Libya, so that Qatar appeared as a strategic ally of Turkey in light of the political and media confrontations that were taking place between Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, and Egypt, where Qatar placed Turkey’s military bases on its territory and supported the options. Turkey against the Arab countries, at a time when Turkey began implementing its military projects inside northern Syria, and began occupying the areas of Afrin. ( Source )

Qatar and achieving the project of a harmonious society for the benefit of the Syrian regime

The Sunni Arab majority in Syrian society constituted a real concern for the Assad regime during the four decades that preceded the revolution, due to the regime’s affiliation to the ruling Alawite sect, while the Sunni element present in the army and state institutions was formal and ineffective. Since the Syrian revolution took sectarian aspects less than two years after its launch as a result of the speeches of both parties, especially the Sunni Arab opposition, this constituted a real concern among the religious minorities in Syria and the fears forced them to take refuge in the regime. What are the reasons that prompted the Sunni opposition to give priority to the language of sect and doctrine? The media and groups supported by Qatar stand behind it and in many respects they have taken over the fighting groups of the Syrian opposition, and Qatari funding has caused the emergence of the Al-Nusra Front and its sisters in the Syrian scene to be an alternative to the Free Army, whose beginnings were established away from the sectarian mentality.

In fact, the Sunni majority constituted a real obstacle to the regime, which sought help from the Shiite groups in the surrounding area, under the banner of sectarian war (Sunni-Shiite) after awakening feelings of revenge and evoking Shiite-Sunni conflicts throughout history, in exchange for the regime’s intelligence paying its men within the Syrian opposition abroad and at home and on. He headed armed groups, including extremists, to help in sectarian mobilization against Shiites and Alawites. This, in fact, helped large segments of Shiites in the region to join Assad’s battles under the banner of Iranian intelligence.

The Qatari media outlets, including the Al Jazeera network, along with the Syrian extremist groups that it supported with funding inside Turkey and in some of the areas it controlled in the northwest, after Turkey provided training, guidance, and course-changing operations, helped raise the level of sectarian discourse against the regime, which helped to employ it. By Syrian intelligence to incite Shiite militias in neighboring countries and push them to join under the umbrella of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to fight against Sunni Arabs in Syria.

These are the same reasons that the regime took advantage of to implement the demographic change project in the Syrian interior regions and get rid of the Sunni Arab demographic weight in favor of handing over these regions to the Shiite elements.

The regime's strategy requires agreements between the Iranians and the Turks, especially after the American military intervention on behalf of the Kurdish forces in fighting ISIS. Despite ISIS's control over vast areas on the border with Turkey, the Turkish regime did not find this presence a threat to it, while it announced its rejection of any American support for the Kurdish forces. In the fight against ISIS, it saw this supporter as a threat to its national security. While Iran expanded its ground intervention through Iraqi, Lebanese, and Persian Shiite militias from Iran and Afghanistan, it began ethnic cleansing operations against Sunni Arab groups around Damascus, Aleppo, and Homs. At a time when Russia intervened by air to support the Syrian regime.

Turkey found these dramatic transformations an important opportunity for its military intervention in areas dividing the east of the Euphrates from its west, so it began occupying Jarabulus, Al-Bab, and Azaz through implicit agreements with ISIS to evacuate them and head south, while the Turkish army entered, accompanied by the Syrian armed groups it had previously gathered for the mission of seizing these areas. The goal was clear: to block the way for the Kurdish forces, which had developed their capabilities after forming an international coalition to support them, in addition to forming Arab groups with which the Syrian Democratic Forces were established.

For Turkey, this development represented a great alarm, although the Americans reassured it that Turkey is a strategic ally and member of NATO, as it repeatedly stated that the support provided to the Syrian Democratic Forces is aimed at fighting terrorism only. However, the Turkish side did not wait for operations to eliminate ISIS, but rather resorted to forming... Military forces for the Syrian opposition according to their own details, with significant support and funding from Qatar, which was engaged in a conflict with Saudi Arabia and the Emirates and found in Turkey a strategic ally to break the Arab siege around it in exchange for enabling Turkey to achieve its own goals in northern Syria.

Qatar most likely played a pivotal role in the Iranian-Turkish agreements in Syria, as Qatari-Iranian relations were distinguished during the Four Cities Agreement, in addition to Qatari encouragement in emptying Sunni Arab regions in favor of Shiite militias, and supporting the strategy of displacing Sunnis to the northwest, with the aim of forming separatist emirates for groups. Extremism, and its intelligence command was delegated to the Turks, who exploited this in the attack on the Kurdish forces.

During August 2017, Bashar al-Assad spoke about a “homogeneous society,” where a project was implemented to displace more than 7 million Sunni Arabs from the Syrian interior regions, replacing them with Iranian-backed Shiite militias. Thus, the Sunni Arab majority was eliminated after they were displaced to the northern regions, where Turkey was preparing for military intervention in the Kurdish regions, with the aim of emptying the region of the Kurds and populating it with Sunni Arabs who were displaced from the Damascus Ghouta, Homs, Aleppo, and others.

The Turkish colonization project continues with Qatari support and Muslim Brotherhood groups

Under the mantle of the Red Crescent and Relief, official Qatari authorities have been working since 2018 to implement Arab-Turkmen settlement projects in the Kurdish region by building more than 14 villages consisting of thousands of residential apartments, in addition to opening markets, communities, and sustainable facilities that encourage settlers and help them stabilize demographic change.

These settlements are distributed in several areas and villages in the countryside of Afrin and Qabasin, where the Qatari Red Crescent has intensified its activities since the occupation carried out by the Turkish army and groups displaced from Damascus, Homs and others through official agreements with the Russians, Iranians and the Syrian regime, and has initiated the establishment of several large settlements in the Kurdish areas west of the Euphrates River.

Qatar supported the Turkish intentions to stabilize the demographic change with all financial means and supplies that would help this, as it transferred thousands of prefabricated brick housing during the year 2022 to northern Syria, which it used to receive fans of the World Cup that was held in Qatar during the same year.

The Qatari support came after Erdogan announced the brick houses project in 2022, according to which the official opening of the project was announced, which was built in 250 different points from 13 regions, especially in Afrin, Azaz, Jarabulus, Tal Abyad, Ras al-Ayn, and Qabasin, and it was implemented “during the same year.” The number exceeded 57,306 out of 77,000 homes. This contributed to the settlement of approximately half a million Syrian refugees in villages and settlement groups within the occupied territories.

During the past five years, Turkey was able to attract a large number of organizations and associations related to the Muslim Brotherhood movement in the Arab region and Europe, while Qatari support was very generous in granting Turkey the capabilities required to build a very large number of settlements.

On July 9, 2023, the Qatar Red Crescent and the Turkish AFAD Authority established several settlements under the name (the tributaries of goodness and humanity first), the first in the Akhtarin district and the second in the countryside of the Qabasin region, consisting of thousands of homes and sustainable facilities that demonstrate settlement operations.

The three months of the summer of 2023 also included a broad Qatari movement to purchase lands and sites in order to build new settlements, according to reports that showed the extent of participation in establishing Sunni Arab settlement within the Kurdish region and removing them from their original homes in Ghouta, Homs, Aleppo, and Deir ez-Zor. Residential units project in northern Syria.

On May 28, 2024, the Qatar Red Crescent announced the opening of two residential complexes with a total of 1,136 apartments, to house thousands of Arab settlers in the vicinity of the Kurdish village of Susunbat, north of Al-Bab (Qabasien countryside).

During the current year 2024, associations and organizations linked to the Qatari state have intensified their efforts to build settlements and stabilize Turkish efforts to change demographic change in the west of the Euphrates. The Qatari Red Crescent has published what it calls efforts to build housing for displaced Syrians, while the facts on the ground indicate great Qatari efforts to stabilize Turkish plans for settlement. Sunni Arabs and Turkmen in the Kurdish region.