"Brotherhood has no limits," this phrase is painted in Arabic and Turkish on a wall in Azaz, in northern Syria, a town liberated from Daesh by the Turkish military-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA).
From Turkish language classes for Syrian children to the state-owned Türk Telekom company erecting its first cell towers on Syrian soil, Ankara's role in the reconstruction of the region around Azaz has been expanding. "All the support we receive is Turkish, [from] education to services and so on," said Mohammad Hamdan Keno, 64, head of the Azaz Local Council (ALC), which governs the town.
"Everything here is from our Turkish brothers." Like the rest of his hometown, his desk in the ALC's headquarters is adorned with both the two-star flag of the Syrian uprising and Ankara's red-and-white crescent emblem.
Turkey began providing humanitarian, political and military backing to Syria's moderate opposition soon after anti-regime protests began in 2011, and it has remained a steady ally ever since. But its influence became more explicit in 2016, when Turkish troops and the FSA launched Operation Euphrates Shield against Daesh terrorists along its borders, in northern Syria.
Following the successful operation against Daesh, the northern Syrian towns of Jarabulus, al-Rai, al-Bab, Dabiq and Azaz were cleared from Daesh. On June 20 this year, Turkey also launched Operation Olive Branch against the PKK terrorist group's Syrian affiliate the People's Protection Units (YPG) in northeastern Afrin province to clear the region from the group.
Since then, Turkish security forces patrol the area, supporting the local police, which were also formed with the help of Ankara. But Turkish state institutions and private companies have also put down roots in this relatively stable pocket, becoming an integral part of
everyday life. Walls of the main hospital in Jarabulus are now adorned with portraits of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the town is lit by an electricity grid set up by Ankara.
A similar deal is in its first stages in Azaz, Keno told Agence France-Presse (AFP). "A private Turkish company will implement an electricity project in Azaz, and Turkey is the guarantor," he said.
Keno said Turkey has also helped the council pave roads, renovate mosques and repair classrooms damaged by fighting. "They fixed up the schools, gave us desks, books, schoolbags, computers and printers," he listed.
Most of the signs around Azaz itself are already bilingual, and to phone each other and surf the web, residents have replaced their Syrian SIM cards with Turkish ones. "The demand is remarkable," said Ahmad Hadbeh, Türk Telekom's 24-year-old representative in Syria. "We put up towers in al-Bab, Azaz and Jarabulus. The signal became stronger than before, and made up for a lot of the Syrian network coverage." The Türk Telekom store is set up in the center of Azaz's market, teeming with people shopping for sweets, rice, clothes and even cleaning supplies imported
from Turkey. Salim Horani, a 37-year-old trader in Azaz, ships everything from fabric and shoes to industrial equipment from Turkey. "Turkey's markets are huge - we can import from Istanbul, Meric, Gaziantep and Mersin," he told AFP. It's cheaper for shoppers in opposition territory to buy Turkish-imported goods than products from government-held zones in Syria, he said. "Prices in Turkey are more affordable by a really huge margin compared to regime areas." Some Syrians even get clothes and other products shipped directly from Turkish cities into Azaz through the PTT, Turkey's state-owned postal service.
