Catherine Shakdam
New Eastern Outlook
Forget Damascus and forget President Bashar al-Assad’s seat of power – the real battle for Syria is being played out in the northern city of Aleppo, where Turkey dared dream it would revive its empire of old. Ankara here, is in for a rude awakening!
New Eastern Outlook
Forget Damascus and forget President Bashar al-Assad’s seat of power – the real battle for Syria is being played out in the northern city of Aleppo, where Turkey dared dream it would revive its empire of old. Ankara here, is in for a rude awakening!
So rude in fact that Turkish President
Recep Erdogan is contemplating a military incursion into Syria – a move
fraught with dangers, as it could potentially send Turkey in a collision
course with not just Damascus, but two military superpowers; Iran and
Russia. Needless to say that while both Moscow and Tehran have exercised
restraint and measure when dealing with Ankara’s political folly, for
the sake of regional stability; a direct military move against Syria
would likely send ripples across the region that no amount of diplomacy
will quiet.
Turkey of course argues that its
position is legitimate and true … how could it not, when Turkey has
proven such a true NATO ally, such a bulwark against terror? President
Erdogan’s main line of defense – or rather, attack is that he needs to
absolutely protect Turkey’s national sovereignty against dangerous
radical militants. Turkey’s right to self-defence is so imperious in
fact that its expression justifies its trampling over the territorial
integrity of another sovereign nation: Syria.
In this exceptional narrative Syria has
been relegated to a military theatre where nation-states have come to
play war, and empire-building. Syria, Mr Erdogan has implied, stands but
a dwarf before Turkey’s political and military needs … who cares for
international law when one towers a strategic chokepoint in between the
EU and a flood of migrants?
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