Logistics Fall of Assad reopens Syria route to Gulf for Turkey’s truckers By William Sellars January 13, 2025, 3:36 PM Alamy Before the outbreak of civil war, trucks from Turkey made 50,000 journeys a year via Syria to the Gulf Truckers made 50,000 trips a year End of civil war set to reopen roads Hope for two-way traffic The overthrow of the Bashar Al-Assad regime is great news for Turkey’s logistics sector, with hopes that the direct land route to the Gulf region through Syria may soon be re-established. While there will be strong demand for logistics in Syria as the country rebuilds after 13 years of civil war, Turkey’s truckers are looking further afield, and seeking to restore trade routes to the south severed by the conflict. “With security re-established in Syria, Turkey would be able to regain its potential to export through the land road to the country or via the transit route to other Middle East countries, as in the past, and improve our trade with important markets in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait,” said Şerafettin Aras, chair of the executive committee of Turkey’s International Transporters’ Association. The Syria route was itself established as a result of conflict. Turkey’s land trade with the Gulf states formerly ran through Iraq. However, the second Gulf war in 2003, the subsequent unrest after the overthrow of Saddam Hussain, the rise of Isis and continued instability forced Turkish logistics operators to develop a new path to its key Gulf markets, via Syria. Turkish exporters cashing in on end of Syrian conflict The pros and cons for Turkey of a Syrian exodus End sanctions on Syria, says Saudi Arabia By the time the route was closed after the outbreak of war in Syria, Turkish truckers made the trip to Saudi Arabia and the other GCC states up to 50,000 times a year, with a similar number of journeys to Syria itself or other regional destinations. Alternative routes were developed, using roll-on-roll-off (ro-ro) ships to transport trailers to Egypt before resuming the land journey. But this was both more expensive, adding up to $5,000 per load, and slower for truckers than the direct Turkey-Syria-Gulf route. Even this option was closed as result of a cooling of relations between Ankara and Cairo, with Egypt cancelling the ro-ro agreement with Turkey, leaving maritime transfers to the Middle East as the only route available to Turkish trucking firms. The reopening of the Syrian transit corridor will help open doors for Turkish businesses and the logistics sector to the Middle East region, Aras said. “Using this route, we can reach Jordan in three days, and the GCC countries in five days,” he said. “It will present opportunities for increased trade and business with all of the GCC countries for both our exporters and the Europe-Asia business world.” Aras said the potential restoration of the Syria corridor will not result in one-way traffic. With the Gulf countries, and in particular Saudi Arabia, working to diversify their economies away from a dependence on energy exports and maritime trade routes and towards broader-based industrial production and direct land links, the opening up of the transit route would mean Syria, Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries “could utilise the potential of the Turkish transportation fleet to export to Turkey and Europe,” he said.