War-torn Syrian people under threat of new war
While the tension between the United States and Russia escalates into a war-like conflict, the war-torn Syrian people anxiously await their fate. Caged in a never-ending war among states and terrorist organizations, the Syrian people struggle to live among bombings and slaughters in Hama, in Eastern Ghouta and Aleppo. Foreign powers support their own terrorist organizations in Syria. The murderous Daesh, a Western innovation and specter, instead of representing “the rebellious children of the Islamic world,” served as the secret weapon of foreign intelligence organizations. While Daesh damaged the image of Islam in the world, they eventually left the regions they controlled to another terrorist organization, i.e. the PKK terrorist organization’s Syrian offshoot the Democratic Union Party (PYD). It is even claimed that 8,000 members of Daesh have been sent to Afghanistan from where al-Qaida, which was itself an American innovation, emerged. Apart from Daesh, the PKK/PYD first supported by the Iranian and the Syrian regimes against Turkey have now turned into the legionaries of the U.S. in Syria. In addition to their attacks against the Syrian people, the PKK/PYD sabotaged Turkey’s resolution process of the Kurdish question, which was the greatest attempt of peace for resolving the long-standing Kurdish issue. Today, it is claimed that around 30,000 PKK/PYD soldiers in Syria are of service for the U.S. administration. From the very beginning of the Syrian civil war, the U.S. administration adopted delaying tactics in the face of the rightful demands of its allies and the Syrian oppositional groups. They clearly lost their alliance with Turkey in Syria. While the Obama administration’s hesitancy enabled Iran and Russia to establish an empire-like domination in Iraq and Syria, the initial positive moves of the Trump administration have eventually come to no significant change of the American policy in Syria. Regaining its Cold War power, Russia has already consolidated its penetration into the region stretching from the Mediterranean to the Caspian Sea especially during the process of the American presidential elections. In fact, Donald Trump’s present aggressiveness emerges from their defeat against Russia, Iran and the Syrian regime. In order to compensate their defeat, the U.S. administration seems to be ready to pay higher prices. Such a chess game of power struggle in Syria has enabled Turkey to adopt a multidimensional and multilateral foreign policy attitude. Thanks to its independent political position, Turkey succeeded to develop bilateral relations with Russia, the U.S. and European powers. On the battlefield, Turkey devastated Daesh with Operation Euphrates Shield, while the PKK/ PYD that was overblown as “the fighters of freedom” against Daesh was recently defeated in Afrin. Relying on the legacy of the Ottoman Empire and on Islamic values, Turkey’s army never hurt the civilians and their city. Today, Turkey’s governmental and civil society organizations struggle to serve the civilians in Afrin. If Russia and the U.S. will wage war against each other, they should make their war in their own lands. The ongoing Syrian civil war that threatens to become a third world war can by no means be beneficial for the Syrian people or the competing parties of the international arena. Those who occupied Syria for overthrowing a dictator are themselves cruel. While imperialist powers occupy Islamic lands, Muslim people continue to lose their lives.