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Preparing for conflict in Syria
There’s a famous saying about Hitchcock films.
“If a gun is shown at the beginning of the movie, that gun will be fired at one point.”

If the U.S. has amassed this great amount of weapons so overtly, that means these weapons will be fired at someone somewhere.


I said this to a high rank security official in Ankara and asked;


 
“Who do you think they will use these against?”

The answer was unhesitant and scary:


 
“They will use it against us.”

This is the defense perception of the government in Turkey. As in the Hitchcock movies, the weapons the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)’s Syrian affiliate, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), wields will definitely be used one day  and its target will be Turkey.


Is PKK/PYD only a threat for Turkey?

I think the Syrian regime, N. Iraq government and Iran think that these weapons will be used against them as well.


It is normal that every nation interprets it and sees it this way. Even an army would not have that great amount of weapons amassed there. Almost a hundred thousand militants were trained and armed. And all of them are under the command of the U.S, which has imperial and colonial intentions.


I don’t think the U.S. will eventually say “Now that Daesh is history, we’re returning to our country; you go home too, and return the weapons.” Even if they do, it will be meaningless. Why would a terrorist organization return weapons that they couldn’t ever imagine they’d have?


Two separate games of chess on two different tables

I went to Kilis this weekend. I visited the border. I saw places which will be one of the important centers of Turkey’s Afrin operation. Military preparations are going on rapidly.


Actually, we can consider the Afrin operation as already having partially started. Some positions are being struck with Howitzers. But the actual operation is to cross the border and establish control over the settlement. This is where Turkey is having difficulties.


Is the U.S. the obstacle before the Afrin operation or is it Russia/Iran/Syria? Since the Russian military is in Afrin, and not the U.S., that means the real obstacle is the Russians.


I think that Turkey is struggling against two different players on two different chess boards.
Russia, Iran and Syria are on the first table, who seem to be our allies at Astana and Sochi.

On the second table, there are the U.S., Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. And the U.S. is supposedly our strategical partner. Supposedly, the Saudi’s are our Muslim brothers…


We are playing chess against a crowded group whose friendships and hostilities for each other are intermingled. Qatar is with us. I think we are trying to pull France and the EU on to our side, but they don’t seem to be responding.


The second table is the reason we couldn’t conduct a military operation in İdlib. And the first table is the reason we are not able to launch the operation in Afrin.

 
We were betrayed the most by those who we call allies and friends. 
 
 

Are we going to engage in conflict in Syria?

We need to understand the difficulty of the situation. The reason that Erdoğan is raising his voice is the fact that he knows what is going to happen in the next step.


Turkey will be in a high risk conflict. It has no other option left.  

How they will do it is a matter of discussion.


People from the opposition insist on saying that they should make a deal with Syria, Iran and Russia. They already did in Sochi. Turkey signed an agreement they wanted, but they are not keeping their promises.


They also say that Turkey should make a deal with the Syrian regime for the operation against PYD. They don’t know that Damascus does not have military power and its entirety means Iran. Do you think Damascus will engage in conflict with PYD? The U.S. will launch an operation to bring Assad down without losing any time. Their reason will be the usage of chemical weapons (which Assad used in Ghouta). So Damascus will never attempt to do such thing taking this into consideration.


Russia and Iran are copping out again

Here is the states of our allies that we made a deal with in Sochi:


Iran hasn’t learnt their lesson after what happened. They are still trying to stop Turkey from gaining strength instead of cooperating with it despite the U.S.’s aggressive approach and the fact that the weapons PYD holds will be used against them one day.


Russia is confused. Their economy was negatively affected by the operation in Syria. They think that the only thing they got out of it is a dry victory rhetoric. Now they want to be stable and want Turkey and the U.S. to lose their power instead of increasing their costs by deepening the crisis there. Russia neither wants to let Turkey become more powerful on the field nor for the U.S. to seize the region. But they don’t want to pay any price either. That’s why they are confused.


It’s a hard situation.


We are stuck between the U.S. and Russia blocks. Turkey has to overcome this challenge. We don’t have any other option. We might pay bigger prices in the future.

Conflict seems to be inevitable. I hope I’m wrong.
   

 
#Syria
#US
#Turkey
#Russia
#PKK
6 yıl önce
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