With his analytical article printed in the Arab El Sefir newspaper, Zihad Haydar sheds light on Turkish-Syrian relations starting from the era of Hafez al-Assad and leading up to our days. Touching upon the recent presentation of the Arab version of the book “Memoirs of Eyewitnesses about the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire” by RA Ambassador to Syria, Doctor of Historical Sciences Arshak Poladyan at the Al-Assad National Library, Haydar mentions that the Syrian press presents on its website the horrible crimes that were committed against the Armenians by the decision of the Young Turks.

Zihad Haydar mentions that Hafez al-Assad cared for Armenian-Syrian relations and personally planted a tree at the Armenian Genocide memorial complex in 1979. However, Syria improved relations with Turkey during the reign of Bashar Al-Assad, who tried to lead an objective policy on the two countries. In 2009, Bashar Al-Assad visited Yerevan, but didn’t visit the Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex so that the improved relations between Syria and Turkey would serve as an impetus for the rapprochement between Ankara and Yerevan.

When RA President Serzh Sargsyan visited Syria, Bashar al-Assad expressed once again the view that the fact that he is on good terms with Turkey and Armenia should serve as an impetus for the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations.

However, the Syrian crisis began, and Turkey started overtly interfering in Syria’s domestic politics and helped revitalize Syria’s former positive stance on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.