Prague, Sept 23 (CTK) – Without Vladimir Putin, no peace is possible in Syria, and without peace in Syria, hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees will keep destabilising Europe, Petr Zidek writes in daily Lidove noviny, saying Russia has opened a second front against the West in Syria.
Moscow would surely be happy if Europe was destabilised as such Europe would not be focusing on Ukraine, Zidek writes.
The Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s started as an internal conflict in a peripheral European country, but it ended as a proxy war of European powers. The fascist Italy and Nazi Germany tested its air forces in this war and the Stalinist Soviet Union tested a way of subjugating another country, which became known under the name of a people’s democracy after World War Two, Zidek writes.
In the 1930s, Czech left-wing circles used to say that Prague is at stake in the fighting in Madrid, he adds.
Prague is at stake in the fighting in Damascus now. The Syrian “civil war” will decide not only on the Middle East, but also on the future of Europe, Zidek writes.
However, the situation in Syria is more complicated than that in Spain: there are more parties in the civil conflict and they have more foreign sponsors and the fronts are rather unclear, he writes.
The regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is supported by Russia, Iran and the Hezbollah movement, while the Syrian opposition is armed and trained by the United States, France and Britain and it is financially supported by Saudi Arabia, other oil monarchies and Turkey, Zidek writes.
The Islamic State organisation is discreetly backed by Turkey, which buys oil from it, and private donors from the oil countries. The Kurds in Syria are supported by the Kurds in Iraq and they seem to be discreetly armed by the West, Zidek says.
He says the military situation in Syria has been considerably influenced by the direct participation of Russia in the recent weeks. Satellite images prove that there are dozens of Russian combat aircraft, helicopters, armoured vehicles, tanks and other military materiel at the Russian military base at Latakia, and Moscow has confirmed the deployment of hundreds of army experts in Syria, he adds.
“Assad’s regime, which managed to maintain control over the crucial and strategically important parts of the country except for the oil fields in the east after four years of the conflict, may celebrate: with the direct Russian military support, it is unbeatable,” Zidek writes.
The Russian involvement follows an old tradition, he says.
When the left wing of the Baath Party seized power in Damascus after 1966 and especially when General Hafez al-Assad, (Bashar al-Assad’s father) assumed power after 1970, Syria became a key Soviet ally in the Middle East, Zidek writes.
Moscow got the naval base in Latakia that became the only strongpoint of the Soviet fleet in the Mediterranean Sea during the Cold War era. In return, all countries of the Eastern Bloc, including Czechoslovakia, massively delivered arms to Syria, Zidek writes.
He notes that Syrian military pilot Muhammed Faris was the second Arab in space in 1987 when he flew to the Soviet Mir space station.
Russia has opened a second front against the West in Syria, Zidek concludes.
