Assad Naively Trusted Erdogan Until he Got Stabbed in the Back
For many years up until the Syrian civil war of 2011, Syria and Turkey enjoyed very close relations. In a series of reciprocal visits, Pres. Bashar al-Assad made a historic trip to Ankara in 2004, the first Syrian President to do so. Then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Damascus to sign a free trade agreement. In 2007, Erdogan and Assad attended the opening ceremony of the Aleppo International Stadium. Trade flourished with visa-free travel. In 2008, Erdogan and his wife hosted the Syrian first couple for a vacation in the Turkish Resort town of Bodrum. In 2009, the two countries held joint military maneuvers along their mutual border. I was told that Pres. Assad, to appease his ‘Turkish ally’, even banned Armenian Genocide books from bookstores in Syria.
