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Turkey wants its share of Syria’s reconstruction

Turkey is bargaining with Russia for the reconstruction of Aleppo and to promote field projects in order to get a share in the reconstruction efforts of the war-torn country.

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A boy walks amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in the city of Aleppo, Syria, July 22, 2017. — GEORGE OURFALIAN/AFP/Getty Images

Although Turkey publicly appears to sustain its anti-Bashar al-Assad stance on Syria, it is actually getting ready for a new Syria that will allow Assad to stay on as the country's president. While a termination of the de facto Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria seems to be the first precondition for a possible normalization between Ankara and Damascus, there is another unspoken condition as well: the allotment of a share in Syria’s reconstruction.

Naturally, the Assad administration does not have the intention to allot any share to Turkey, which is accused of supporting anti-regime military groups that have destroyed the country and looted Aleppo's industrial zones. However, Turkey’s control of a sizable territory in northern Syria and its cooperation with Russia make it difficult for Damascus to exclude Turkey from these calculations.

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