The writer teaches Turkish history at Sabanci University in Istanbul. He holds an MA and PhD in history from the same university.
ISTANBUL
Developments in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province over the past three weeks will have fundamental effects on the flow of history in the coming months and years. What the al-Assad regime and Russia are trying to accomplish in northwestern Syria has nothing to with “fighting terrorism” – that is only the excuse under which Damascus, with Russian help, is carrying out demographic cleansing. In this case, the aim is not ethnic cleansing but rather sectarian cleansing: they want