the capitalist disinformation around syria is tremendous and has been since the initial bullshit claim that assad attacked a peaceful demonstration, when he was bombing saudi-backed isis rebels.
what happened in syria (which is a military junta that the russians have taken control of since about 2015 or so) is that assad actually designed a democratic constitution and was going to put it up for a referendum, and the saudis vetoed it by launching a western-backed invasion. remember that the united states cannot tolerate democracy in the middle east, which makes them a great ally of the saudis; assad threatened to allow democracy in a state that is actually secular and has historically had a mix of christians and muslims and that got him marked for death.
assad's father was actually an ally of saddam hussein and syria was aligned against iran in a series of wars in the 20th century.
when the turks realized the saudis were going into syria, they had to push back because syria is a buffer state on the turkish border. the turks do not want a direct border with the saudis, they want some space. that, and the turks figure that syria has a long history tied to constantinople, and not much of one tied to mecca. the turks, somewhat correctly, would consider syria in it's sphere, not in the arab sphere.
what developed out of that initial conflict between the saudis and turks over syria became a complicated proxy war and, when it slowed down, the iranian proxy of hezbollah wandered into the mess, to nobody's wishes. everybody wants hezbollah out, even the russians.
we'll have to see how this develops, but my initial perception is that the turks and israelis made a deal for turkey to enter the ongoing war on the side of israel by invading northern syria, which will also create a problem for the russians in ukraine. israel cannot conduct a ground war in syria, but turkey can. ukraine and syria are actually the same war; this actually becomes a war between russia and turkey.
the russians might want to step back and let the turks clear hezbollah out before launching a counter-offensive, which would be assad's preferred outcome. the kurds will be sitting and waiting to come in if required.
i want trump to try to pry assad away from russia and realign syria towards the west, then tell the saudis to back off and let syria be free to design it's own government, but that is unlikely to happen given turkey's nato membership and saudi influence in washington. we will instead be told lies about assad, like we were about saddam hussein.
assad's father was a tyrant, but the younger assad, who was not groomed for power, is a mild-mannered figurehead that grew up in britain. he has western inclinations. these should be leveraged.