Russia Military’s Actions in Syria Cause Rift With Turkey | World Defense

Russia Military’s Actions in Syria Cause Rift With Turkey

Redheart

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/world/middleeast/russia-turkey-tensions-rise-over-syria.html

Tensions between Russia and Turkey widened on Tuesday over the Russian bombings of Syrian rebels and multiple violations of Turkish airspace, which have deeply undercut Turkey’s goals in the Syrian civil war.

“Our positive relationship with Russia is known,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday at a news conference during a visit to Brussels. “But if Russia loses a friend like Turkey, with whom it has been cooperating on many issues, it will lose a lot, and it should know that.”

Aside from blunt warnings, however, there appears to be little that Mr. Erdogan can do about Russia’s assertive military actions in Syria, which have upended his priorities to oust the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, and establish a buffer zone on Syria’s border with Turkey.

While in many ways close to Russia, Mr. Erdogan is now leaning more heavily on his NATO allies, reflecting the shifting forces buffeting Turkey as it copes with the military, economic and humanitarian fallout of Syria’s war.

“An attack on Turkey means an attack on NATO,” Mr. Erdogan said.

Turkey, which from the outset of the war more than four years ago backed rebel groups in the belief that Mr. Assad could be quickly toppled, finds itself powerless to shape events in Syria.

What became increasingly clear after Russia began its bombing campaign is that Mr. Erdogan’s long-held ambition of persuading Western allies to establish a safe zone in northern Syria has crumbled.

“It’s quite clear to me that if we had spoken a month ago about a safe zone or a no-fly zone, it would have been a good idea,” said Marc Pierini, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels and a former European Union ambassador to Turkey. “Talking today, I’d say it’s a no-go.”

Mr. Erdogan, in Brussels this week for talks with European leaders over the migrant crisis convulsing Europe, continued to push for a safe zone in northern Syria as the only acceptable way to create stability in Syria and discourage refugees who are increasingly leaving Turkey on perilous sea journeys for Europe.
 

Corzhens

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From what I had read in one of the threads here, Turkey has a formidable army that can fight off ISIS and I have the impression that ISIS is apprehensive on that issue - if Turkey attacks them. Now Turkey is bickering with Russia over air space violation. And Russia committed that violation in fuilfilment of their attack to Syria with their fighter jets. We are like having private battles inside a big war.
 
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