WAR AND MEMORY

Turkish Spy Chief Did What Erdogan Couldn’t Long Ago: Praying in Damascus Once Assad Gone

Erdogan once vowed to pray in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus after Assad’s downfall. He failed to honor his pledge. Thirteen years and 600,000 deaths later, his spy chief did it on his behalf.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan meets with HTS leader Gholani in Damascus last month.

Amid political uncertainty, the lingering Israeli ground invasion beyond the buffer zone in Golan Heights in the south, and the renewed armed skirmishes in the north, Damascus is now teeming with political endeavors to shape the contours of the post-Assad transition in the newly liberated Syria. The whole world’s eye is now fixed on this country after dictator Bashar al-Assad’s unexpected downfall last month.

The first high-profile diplomatic visit occurred in early December when the top Turkish diplomat and spymaster descended on Damascus to meet the transitional government leaders.

According to Turkish media reports, Turkish intel chief Ibrahim Kalin and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with political representatives in charge of the transition process. One video footage showed that Kalin met Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s leader, Mohammad al-Gholani, now the world’s most-searched figure on Google.

Turkey had been one of the ardent champions of the rebel cause, and observers ascribed considerable credit to Ankara in the rebel triumph over Assad after nearly 14 years of on-and-off civil war that consumed the lives of more than 600,000 civilians, mainly at the hands of the Assad regime.

As important as the meeting was, the visual record of Kalin’s visit to the Umayyad Mosque was overlooked by the outside world.

Surrounded by heavily armed guards, Turkish spymaster Kalin entered the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus to perform prayers. The symbolic meaning of the entire act was not lost on the Turkish audience.