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No Advantage to Turkish Intervention in Syria

Reader comment on item: Turkish-Syrian Tensions Flare Anew
in response to reader comment: Advantages of Turkish Syria war?

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Nov 27, 2012 at 12:27

Turkish dreams of empire does have an appearance of cutting close to Bashar al-Assad's frame of mind as he struggles to maintain 'ownership' of his rule in Syria. As time progresses past him in his efforts to put down the uprising, he loses more and more of his perceived control of Syria while the obvious power erosion continues to leave him even further exposed to the powers that are shaping his destiny in spite of his resistance. Casting aspersions against Erdoğan is evidence that he wants the Turkish influences out of his way, but it is obvious his power to keep those influences from affecting him is diminished while he battles for his very survival.

Syria is in a target zone of one kind and/or another. The former days of Syrian influences while the Soviet Union was behind the power base are now shifted, that while the Russians are indeed embedded in the subliminal aspirations of maintaining a presence for Russia's purposes in the region, the conflict of opposing Islamic ideals makes for a tenuous situation at minimum and creates the potential of the necessity of actual intervention as it all commences to get too far out of control for anyone. The Russians have to be nervous.

That having been said, Turkey moving into Syria for a variety of reasons is not all that unthinkable, given Erdoğan's previously expressed gestures of being more involved in the Middle East as a more stable presence than many of the Arab neighbors while putting the west (read NATO) off at arm's length. Even at that, the west seems more inclined to keep the NATO alliance with Turkey as the rest of the Middle East (sans Israel) strengthens its ties with the Brotherhood.

The perception that the schism that seems to keep Islam at odds is more ethnically based versus sectarian is notable, yet there are apparent inconsistencies. This sometimes makes for a hard read of the subliminal undercurrents when trying to understand how it is that the uprisings, which on the surface were being given over to the idea that the Brotherhood was looking for unity of the 'cause' as the basis of wresting control of the Middle East for Islam, yet finding that squabbles of an undefined sort continue to thwart that ultimate goal that was so sublimely intimated in the 2009 Cairo speech of Candidate Obama.

In reality, the west really does not have all that much to offer the Arab sympathies of the Middle East and this is more easily seen as the ethnically separated power sources in the region still cannot find too much common ground in order to present a common front. In fact, this separation portends to invite greater interferences from the west, especially as the humanitarian sympathies view towards the 'oppressed' Syrian population continues to suffer at the hands of al-Assad's armies. This might be where Erdoğan might think to interfere himself. If he does, this does not bode well for the international community.

Submitting....

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Reader comments (22) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
Isaiah chapter 17 [146 words]Lujack SkylarkDec 7, 2012 14:53201239
Advantages of Turkish Syria war? [176 words]ShishirNov 12, 2012 05:40200487
No Advantage to Turkish Intervention in Syria [498 words]M. ToveyNov 27, 2012 12:27200487
Syria and Turkey close to war [109 words]p. schwartzJul 12, 2011 20:25187228
2Strife of Remnant Ottomans [117 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
M. ToveyJun 27, 2011 18:01186849
1Military capability [43 words]lord garthJun 27, 2011 14:41186842
1Go for it [58 words]Wylie BackstromJun 21, 2011 11:36186538
Muslim assistance for Bosnia [32 words]Naushad OmarJun 22, 2011 14:25186538
4The victims of Turkish and islamic imperialism [145 words]dhimmi no moreJun 23, 2011 07:06186538
3dear Dhimmi [244 words]moJun 27, 2011 15:00186538
4Our dear mo is back for more! and I smell another fatwa here [782 words]dhimmi no moreJun 28, 2011 07:06186538
6Islamic penicillin and other Islamic holy waters and black pagan stones [405 words]dhimmi no moreJun 28, 2011 08:49186538
2Bosnians were not forced to convert [268 words]agnosticAug 20, 2011 06:36186538
1So the Bosnians did not convert under force but under political expediencies! [30 words]PrashantAug 20, 2011 21:27186538
Bosnians were forced [96 words]MagdalenaSep 19, 2014 03:38186538
1Inhumanely Intelligencia Between all the Flares [140 words]Jay1Jun 20, 2011 20:24186507
2Is this a new Erdogan? [120 words]batya daganJun 19, 2011 22:56186486
1What next? [104 words]M. OrbuchJun 19, 2011 21:20186482
ABOUT TIME! [293 words]Ilene RichmanJun 19, 2011 20:20186479
1Who praised Turkey? [303 words]Peter HerzNov 10, 2012 10:35186479
1Syria v Turkey [89 words]Dan RusenJun 19, 2011 19:45186477
1Yes, Let's get back to the Jihad against the Joooz ASAP [53 words]katJun 19, 2011 17:33186470

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Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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