Ankara inspired comments

SABAH

SEPTEMBER 7

MEHMET BARLAS

We Turkish newspaper columnists were caught up in the winds blowing from Ankara when it came to interpreting the Syrian civil war. While Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan and his family and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family were close friends. Then Ankara assessed that the mayhem of the civil war in Syria would last no more than three months and that Assad’s fall was certain. Ankara approached the civil war in Syria based on the assessments of the United States. In other words, it was believed that Bashar al-Assad should be overthrown. The Kurdish formations against the regime in Syria, including the PYD, were given support in line with that…In addition, Turkey glossed over the consequences of supporting separatism, which will hit us, because of our obsession with Assad, although we are supposed to defend the integrity of Syria. As a matter of fact, we are now saying the PKK and the PYD are no different, armed and supported by the USA. It makes sense that the U.S., a stranger to the region, made tragic mistakes first in Iraq and then in Syria...However, this time, unlike Iraq, besides Bashar al-Assad, Russia has also established a military presence in Syria. And now Turkey is trying both not to ignore its former policy as well as not to confront Russia…The right attitude for Turkey would be to defend the integrity of Syria and not to engage in regime change discussions on Assad.