Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus August 8, 2013. REUTERS/SANA/Handout via Reuters
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan raised a few eyebrows when he proposed cutting off student loans to protesters as a way to contain the quasi-uprising that stemmed from outrage over the proposed redevelopment of a park in Istanbul. Perhaps his neighbor, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, took notice of such muscular use of the power of debt, as his government announced plans Wednesday to exempt thousands of military reservists called up to help fight the Sunni insurgency from paying installments or fines on loans.
Assad’s forces had made some major gains in recent months as rebels failed to garner real military aid from Western allies and the death toll climbed. But the casualties and strain on the regime have been immense, especially in the last couple of weeks as the rebels have reasserted themselves, with army officers reportedly struggling to prevent defections. So this conspicuous act of kindness to his troops is surely intended to boost morale, on one hand, and serve as a not-so-subtle reminder of the fact that the government under Sunni Islamists is not likely to prove as generous on bread-and-butter economic issues to minority Shiites.
It’s tough to say just how effective this tactic will prove. After all, Erdogan’s student loan threat came after the protests had clearly begun to cool off, so measuring its impact is next-to-impossible. And the world will not be getting an accurate measure of sentiment on the ground from the Assad regime and its loyalists anytime soon. But the precedent of using debt to choke off modern protest movements and help suppress rebellions looks to have been set and may be set to spread to other regimes. Perhaps the most obvious fit would be in Vladimir Putin’s domestic-policy toolbox. Hugo Chávez’s successor in Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro, is another one to watch on debt politics. But wherever it finds its next incarnation, it’s too good (so to speak) an idea for autocrats across the globe to pass up.
