168.am Daily interviewed expert of Oriental Studies Davit Hovhannisyan on the possible spillover of the crisis in Syria. “The situation in Syria is really hard. A state of worst human tragedy is unfolding there. A wonderful country, where different people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds once living peacefully has now turned into an arena of ethnic and religious clashes” noted Hovhannisyan.
Assessing the situation the expert stated that: “Syria was always considered a stable state on the conflicting Middle East background, but now we see that Syria becomes the epicenter where events endanger the stability of the region. The latest of the events refers to Lebanon, where all mass media immediately accused Syria in case when it is not certain who the real murderers are. The head of internal intelligence service of Lebanon General Wissam Al-Hassan was most likely one of those guilty in the murder of Lebanon’s PM Rafic Al-Hariri. Thus, it is clear that general’s murder may have been prepared by R. Al-Hariri’s son Saad Hariri. Besides it’s not excluded that Wissam Al-Hassan had close ties with French special agencies, and his actions were against American and Israeli special agencies. I say all this to show that everything is not so clear as it may seem. It is also known that the murdered had close ties with Hezbollah security service. The situation is confusing, and this was used again to accuse Syria in case when, by my account, Syria doesn’t have resources to organize anything in Lebanon.”
Commenting on the possible Turkish-Syrian war David Hovhannisyan noted that the war shall first of all hit Turkey. “On this occasion especially the Kurdish factor is brought forward. It is understandable that the borderline of Turkey and Syria is inhabited by Kurds and the war may raise Kurdish movement. But the factor of Alevi’s is also important: there is a great number of Alevi population in Turkey who have different ethnicities”
Concluding on the possible regional stability the expert pointed that: “I think that Turkish government must seriously assess the situation inside the state. The actions against Syria will aggravate its relations with Iran, Russia and China. What about the noisy phone talk between Putin and Erdogan, it must be said that it is not certain whether such talk has occurred or not. It is certain that forced landing of Russian plane was a serious act towards Russian self-esteem. Russia isn’t ready to tolerate such actions. But it is certain as well that Russia’s geopolitical interests make it support Syria by all means. Due to “smart” American politics Russians returned to Mediterranean Sea will in no way leave it.”
