Posted on 08/25/2018 3:03:21 PM PDT by ameribbean expat
All of this diplomatic traffic is about the impending Syrian military operation into the Idlib province of Syria where around three million are living. The Syrian army, backed by Russia, is aiming to eliminate the jihadist terrorists, which have been controlling the province since early 2017.
Turkey has 12 military outposts around Idlib, as part of a three-way agreement with Russia and Iran.
Turkey has three main concerns: First, a large-scale operation without distinguishing civilians from terrorists can create a huge catastrophe. Second, it can kick another influx from Syria towards Turkey, complicating the already difficult refugee problem in the country. The third is of course about the security of the Turkish troops in Syria. Any direct attack on Turkish troops would certainly trigger a new and very deep conflict between Turkey and Syria.
“Russia is our strategic partner,” Çavuşoğlu said during the press conference with Lavrov, implying it also wants Russia to act along this line. The Turkish minister’s characterization of ties with Russia can be right from Ankara’s perspective but when it comes to the situation in Syria, Russia’s strategic partner is no doubt Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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Turkey’s proposal to Russia on Idlib suggests a joint work by the military and intelligence to identify who are terrorists and who are not. Turkey openly says a blanket military operation into the province would create a human tragedy and would kill the Astana process.
The next few weeks will show whether Turkey and Russia are really strategic partners or whether their partnership was a temporary tactical one.
(Excerpt) Read more at hurriyetdailynews.com ...
Turkey and Russia make for an “odd couple” regardless of the situation in which they find themselves.
No alliance between the two nations can last longer than the first time one side or the other decides to put over a fast one on its rival. If not in a state of war, both sides have maintained a hostile attitude for hundreds of years.
The dregs of ISIS, al Qaeda and assorted radical hardline islamist militias and war criminals negotiated passage to Idlib as the Syrian Army and Russians cleaned them out of the towns they occupied and enslaved in central and southern Syria
Now it’s time for the final reckoning
I suspect the Russians and Syrians will again sort through these militants, offer amnesty to those willing to assimilate, send into Turkey the hardline islamists looking to live to fight another day, sort out the foreigners and disappear them
No one wants mass slaughter: it only prolongs the civil division in Syria
Sadly Yet again the US seems poised to do the wrong thing on behalf of the wrong people - those we term “ rebels” who really are the dregs of islamist militancy and corrupt SAA deserters who dont dare face their home villages because of their acts
Why are even in NATO???
Why are they EVEN in NATO?
Oops
Strange Turk dance. Aren’t they doing deals with Ukrainians? The Tatars in Crimea are related. If Crimea is not Ukrainian, then why not Turk?
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