Ata Turk Mausoleum, he was the founder of secular Turkey. Suggested reading: Video: Erdogan, Abbas and Putin together inaugurate the largest mosque in Moscow
Source: Arab News
By Abdulrahman Al-Rashed
The Syrian war, which began nine years ago, marks the first time that Turkey’s air force and artillery has targeted Syrian regime forces and Iranian militias.
Turkish F-16 fighter jets or drones would not have entered Syrian airspace — where Syrian, Iranian and Russian defenses are stacked — had Ankara not felt confident that they were under the protection of American forces there.
Furthermore, Russia, which gave Israeli fighter jets the freedom to bomb Iranian and Hezbollah positions in the vicinity of Damascus, did not intercept the Turkish air force, which shot down the Syrian regime’s Russian-built Sukhoi Su-24 jet fighters, or Turkish drones that targeted the regime’s armored vehicles.
From his side, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced his intention to travel to Moscow for a meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, whose spokesperson has said that Russia does not want to expand the war zone.
What has worried Erdogan is the move north by Iranian and Syrian forces, which suggests that, not satisfied with expelling armed factions and recovering the rest of northern Syria, they intend to invade Turkish territory. Ankara has, thus, responded to the perceived threat by reiterating its obligation to defend its borders and citizens.
As for why Damascus and Tehran seem to want to expand the conflict zone northwards and, perhaps, invade southern Turkey, is based on the same justification Turkey gave for its invasion of the Syrian north last year; i.e. to establish a “safe zone” inside the Syrian territories, under the pretext of preventing the Kurds from attacking Turkey. The Damascus regime’s and Iranian forces might then decide to cross the border on the pretext of pushing armed groups, including Syrian and foreign fighters, out of Syria; thereby weakening Turkey and getting rid of millions of Syrians who oppose the regime.
Erdogan is now paying the price of his delay in military intervention, and for getting closer to the Iranians and Russians at the expense of the Syrian opposition.
Suggested reading
Video: Erdogan, Abbas and Putin together inaugurate the largest mosque in Moscow
Categories: America, Americas, Arab World, Asia, Europe, Europe and Australia, Syria, Turkey, United States
Erdogan, Turkey is a aggressor regime. Is used to be Emperium Turkey—
Syria has the right to defend its country from foreigner army ( Turkey) — we should condemn Turkey hardly. Ahmaduyyah do not be silence . If you keep silence you make sins. Do not you know that?
We are all for peace. War solves no problems, but creates more.
Turkey is the public face of ISIS. I encourage all readers to support the PKK freedom fighters against the criminal Turkish dictatorship.
It is a bit more complicated than this. There is no ‘black and white’. PKK are no angels either. Public face of ISIS? Yes, some Turks did business with them. They permitted all the foreign fighters to transit Turkey on the way to join ISIS, but Mossad and CIA and officially the Pentagon ‘dropped arms’ to ISIS too. As I say, no ‘black and white’. Crooks everywhere. and profiteers.
In the ‘hey days’ of ISIS literally hundreds of lorries with stolen Syrian oil went to Turkey. Of course the Americans saw the traffic. They could easily have stopped it with their ‘precision bombings’. Why did they not? Just wondering…