While Saudi Arabia and UAE are tense due to the changes in Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emerged as the new Caliph. Until now Saudi Arabia used to lead the Islamic world but due to the changes in Syria, Erdogan's stature has increased a lot in the Arab world.
Erdogan and Assad became Opponents
Turkey has gained ground in Syria, which has become a matter of prestige for Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey-backed HTS rebels have taken over Syria and President Bashar al-Assad has fled to Russia. After the capture of HTS rebels, Turkey's foreign minister and intelligence chief have visited Syria. It has also been announced that if the new rulers of Syria ask for help, we will also provide military training. Analysts say that at the beginning of the Erdogan era in Turkey, the Turkish President used to be the patron of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Not only this, Erdogan had offered Assad to spend holidays with his family. After this, there was a revolution in the year 2011 and Assad asked the army to crush it. After this, both Erdogan and Assad became staunch opponents of each other. Now, seeing Iran and Russia trapped, Turkey has ended the Assad government from Syria.
In fact, due to the brutal military campaign of the army in Syria, lakhs of people left the country and went to Turkey. At that time, Erdogan could not convince Barack Obama to attack Syria and remove the Assad government. Because of this, Erdogan kept his options open. He united the rebels in the name of Syrian National Army and strategically continued to support the Jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham i.e. HTS, which is linked to Al Qaeda.
One move by Turkey and Assad government fell
Turkey, with the help of Syrian National Army, attacked the Syrian Kurds who wanted to create a new country on Turkey's doorstep. 900 US soldiers are also deployed to protect the Kurds. HTS rebels used to fight the Russian army but due to the deadly weapons of Putin's army, they were limited to their stronghold Idlib only. In the midst of this fight, Erdogan tried to make peace but Assad demanded that Turkey would have to remove its army from Syrian soil. This conversation stopped here. After this, Erdogan asked HTS and Syrian National Army to take limited action in Aleppo in November.
Erdogan's move was to force the Syrian president to normalize relations. Erdogan and his advisors believed that this would force millions of Syrian refugees to return from Turkey. Turkey's limited campaign proved disastrous for Assad and his army fled within a few days. Assad also had to flee and take refuge in Russia with Putin's help. Coup d'etat in any country was never a part of Turkey's foreign policy, but Erdogan changed this policy of Ataturk. Now Erdogan has reached a position from where he will be able to write the future of Syria, which will greatly increase his influence in the entire region.
Erdogan wants to become the leader of Islamic countries
Foreign Policy said that Erdogan sees himself and his country Turkey as the natural leader of Arab and Islamic countries. Now Erdogan is seeing this change in Syria as an opportunity to create a new system. However, Erdogan's path will not be easy because HTS has previously had close ties with Al Qaeda and IS terrorists. At the same time, America is very strict about the Kurds. UAE and Saudi have also suffered a major setback due to Assad's departure. Serious talks were going on between UAE and Assad. Both Saudi and UAE wanted Assad to remain in power. Now after the fall of Assad, these countries are also facing the threat of rebellion and increase in drugs. Saudi also fears the decline of its influence in Muslim countries.