PNN – The fall of the Assad family’s political system has brought Syria into a new era; the conditions that have forced the members of the European Union to make statements about the new status of this country. The positions of the European countries towards the new Syria indicate that they are pleased and at the same time worried about creating an important challenge for the members of this bloc.
The collapse of the Syrian political system
On December 7, 2024, the Syrian political system ended after the 53-year rule of the Assad family. The sudden disintegration of the army, the high speed of the advance of Tahrir al-Sham and possible betrayals in the army all caused the Syrian Baathist regime to be overthrown in just 11 days.
The era of transition of power has begun in Syria and the role and importance of this country as well as the consequences of its future political conditions on the entire Middle East region have made the eyes of the world to follow the events in Syria.
Why Europe is both happy and worried about the events in Syria
In the meantime, the European Union is one of the leading players in the international system, which is paying more attention to the events in Syria. In fact, the experience gained from 2011 to today force the European Union to closely monitor the events in Syria. In these years and with the worsening of the Syrian crisis, a huge wave of migrations from Middle Eastern countries and especially Syria to European countries began, which has created a wide range of issues for the European Union and its member countries.
In these years, the migration wave of the Syrian people and the inability of the European Union as a European transnational organization to organize the migration wave were among the factors that increased the popularity of nationalism in this continent. In fact, the inability of the Union to give an effective answer to this set of issues caused the countries to seek a solution to the problem on their own and on a national scale, and this national confrontation with the problem was one of the effective factors in the growth of nationalism in Europe.
It is interesting to note that in those years, Europeans faced the issue of immigrants at the same time as Donald Trump took office in the United States of America, which fueled the growth of nationalism in Europe. But now, almost 5 years later, history is repeating itself for Europeans; with the difference that Europe is now in a much weaker situation than in those years.
Read more:
Challenges facing Europe
Europe now faces much broader challenges. Challenges that seriously target the existence of the European Union.
1- This challenge is of security and existence. The war in Ukraine and the equations that are quickly created against Europe are the first challenge of Europeans. Trump’s inauguration makes the challenge even more ambiguous, as Trump has promised to end the war in Ukraine “within days” and negotiate a deal with Putin over the war. Trump’s promise to reduce wasteful spending in Europe has also put NATO at risk.
2- The second challenge is economic. At the same time as the war in Ukraine started, protests in Europe skyrocketed. Europe, which was forced to completely change its oil supply chain from Russia to Norway and America in less than a year, now sees Trump on his way, which clearly rejects plans to sell cheap oil to Europe and claims that he will take all of his expenses from Europe.
3- The third challenge is the challenge of favoring nationalism and extreme right parties in Europe. Last week, the French government fell for the first time in 60 years. The truth is that the multitude of economic, political, livelihood and social issues in European countries are slowly pushing the people of Europe towards extreme factions claiming to solve the problems.
4- With these preliminaries, it is now clear why European leaders are carefully following and monitoring the Syrian issue and are curious and, in a sense, worried about its future. In fact, the turn of events towards repeating the years 2011 to 2016 could face Europe with a fourth but recurring deep challenge: the migrant crisis.
At the moment, Europe is almost freed from the short-term crises of the migrant issue and does not welcome the repetition of this challenge at all, even in this situation. Of course, there are still mid-term and long-term crises caused by the influx of immigrants, which are emerging little by little in European countries.
European officials are happy and worried about the new situation in Syria
In this regard, the statements of the new foreign policy official of the European Union, who has been in office since the beginning of this month, are significant. In her recent interview, Kaya Kalas pointed out the high risk of sectarian violence, extremism, fundamentalism, “militarization of religion” and terrorism and stressed that “all of them should be avoided.” He said: “We must avoid repeating the terrible scenarios of Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan.” and added: The rights of all Syrians, including the rights of many minorities, must be protected, and it is crucial to preserve Syria’s territorial integrity and respect for its independence, sovereignty and state institutions.
Kaya Callas emphasized in this meeting that it is in the interest of “everyone”, including the European Union and the Arab League that Syria progresses in the post-Assad era and does not fall into a civil war or a new migration crisis.
Of course, it goes without saying that the European leaders are happy with the damage caused, especially to Russia and the region, and they see these changes as being against Russia’s interests. For example, Kaya Kalas welcomed the fall of Bashar al-Assad in the first hours of the news of the fall of the Syrian regime and said: The collapse of his government shows how weak his supporters in Moscow and Tehran have become.
For example, the President of France emphasized that his country will remain committed to establishing security in the entire Middle East, or the German Foreign Minister stated that millions of Syrians breathed a sigh of relief with the fall of Assad, but Syria should not fall into the hands of radicals and extremists. Callas, as the head of the EU’s foreign policy, said: the first signs and messages issued by the Syrian rebel forces are “good”, but it is still “too early” to make a decision about them. The transfer of power in Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad should not turn into “revenge” and “punitive operations” between groups.
In a statement released by the European troika and the United States, it is also stated: We are closely following the developments in Syria and call on all parties to reduce tension and protect civilians and infrastructure to prevent further displacement of people and disruption of humanitarian assistance.
It remains to be seen which way the course of events in Syria will go and whether Europe will enter the fourth challenge or not, a challenge that Europe seems reluctant to engage with among the multitude of current challenges.