A number of International relations researchers are interpreting the operations Russia has attempted in Syria, and Russia abruptly invading Syria as Russia's uncontrollable rise in the system, and the Russian power threatening the Western World. I believe there is some accuracy in this approach. Hence, by cleverly taking advantage of the voids created by the vibrations of U.S. foreign policy, Russia has ventured to build a clear a zone of influence and intervention region in the Middle East.
On the other hand, we can state that Russia's move might be the start of the end.
After Karl Marx narrated Georg Hegel's finding in “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon”
that all great historical events and people appear twice, he sarcastically states: “He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.”
I suppose Russian President Vladimir Putin, the leader besotted with becoming Russia's tsar in the new era, abruptly invading Syria, is leading toward becoming a repetition of tragicomic event in terms of history. (By the way, in my next column I will touch on Putin's increasing expansionist politics leading toward becoming another tragicomic repetition, this time some put it as Putin leading in the footsteps of Hitler.) The experience that was a breaking point for tragedy and the world happened in 1979.
In 1978, the Afghani government was ousted by a leftist coup that emerged from within the military. This situation was a determining characteristic of leftist movements in underdeveloped countries. After toppling the government, the officers of the Junta, handed over the administration of the country to two parties: Marxists and Leninists. These parties started to make sudden and unexpected reforms to the extent of changing the name of the government. The Afghani people started to react against the sudden and unexpected so-called “reformist” practices of the coup government. Realizing that the tyrant coup government would topple as a result of the insurgency, the USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1978, after signing an agreement with the Afghani government and showing the Afghani invite as a justification.
On a symbol photograph of the invasion, a statement on a tank, part of the armored unit read: “Our deceased friends will forever be with us, welcome to our country.” This statement is attention grabbing in that it shows the motivation connection between an invasion that happened 40 years ago in Afghanistan and the current Syrian invasion.
One of the most important developments that brought the end to the moderation starting between the blocs with the 1975 Helsinki Final Act was the USSR's attempt to invade Afghanistan. From the viewpoint of the USSR, trying to protect a Marxist-Leninist government would rivet the domination within the bloc and, more importantly, it would bring about geopolitical interests.
And consequently, Afghanistan became the beginning of the end for the USSR. The USSR found itself in the second phase of the Cold War, which it could no longer resist with its invasion policies in Afghanistan. The Communist Party Leadership of the USSR, politically and economically bereft of reacting against the Star Wars started by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, tried to veil the collapse by declaring that they were in the last phase of founding socialism.
At the start of the 1990s, the USSR came on the history stage. The invasion of Afghanistan created such a deep breakage that the U.S intervention that followed was compared to the USSR invasion. With regards to Russia, it looks like the direct invasion of Syria will become the “tragicomic” version of the “tragedy” in Afghanistan.
The moderation between the West and Russia, after the collapse of the USSR, roughly continued up until Putin's speech at the Munich Security Conference in 2008. Putin signaled what would happen in the following 10 years in the speech he made at this conference. This was then followed by a part of Georgia being invaded, and the recent invasions of Ukraine and Crimea. And finally, Russia, justifying itself with attending to the call of a tyrant leader, entered Syria and directly invaded it to support a tyrant dictator.
This invasion is a result of the Obama doctrine of U.S.'s foreign policies, but Russia seems to find the miracle within itself. Russia invading Syria is a message, not only for Turkey, but for the West. If the Transatlantic world adopts a determined attitude toward Russian expansionism, Syria will become a region in which Putin loses his hopes of becoming Russia's tsar. Even if this attitude isn't adopted, Russia's future in the region will not be very long. Yet, the West too, will be discharged from the region in a tragic manner. NATO and the Western world should approach this issue from this perspective.
