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US Syrian policy doomed to fail

Commentary Materials 1 September 2016 17:32 (UTC +04:00)
It is believed in Ankara that the most powerful country in the world is not the US or European countries, but Turkey that has been opposing the fifth column inside the country, as well as numerous external threats throughout the last five years
US Syrian policy doomed to fail

Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 1

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

It is believed in Ankara that the most powerful country in the world is not the US or European countries, but Turkey that has been opposing the fifth column inside the country, as well as numerous external threats throughout the last five years.

Ankara's displeasure with US and European countries' policy grows day by day. In particular, reasons for Turkey's dissatisfaction in relation to European countries are primarily related to the protracted negotiations between the EU and Ankara over Turkey's accession to the union.

Despite the fact that Ankara has fulfilled almost all the conditions required by the EU, there still has been no concrete progress in Turkey’s integration with the EU.

The EU demands additional obligations from Ankara, such as mitigation of national laws to combat terrorism, more precisely with the movement of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and at the same time it is obvious that Turkey will never accept such obligations.

Moreover, the EU constantly puts forward new conditions, and even if Ankara accepts all current requirements of the union, sooner or later Turkey will be required to fulfill new commitments, for example, to recognize the 1915 events as “Armenian genocide.”

There is also a problem of abolishing the visa regime between the EU and Turkey.

Turkey expects from the EU abolition of visas for its citizens until October 2016 and this decision was agreed upon between the EU and Ankara in May 2016.

Many in Ankara believe that the EU and the US didn’t show the expected solidarity with Turkey during a series of terrorist attacks in the country. The relations of the US and Turkey aren't much better.

On Aug. 31, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the country and the US experience a crisis in relations. He said that the issue of extradition of Fethullah Gulen, who is suspected in the military coup attempt in Turkey, led to tensions between Washington and Ankara.

The case of Gulen's extradition isn't the only thing. It gets worse.

The fact that Washington called the YPG (Kurdish People's Protection Units) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD, the Kurdish political party) its major allies in Syria in the fight against the “Islamic State” (IS, ISIL, ISIS or Daesh) terrorist group became the breaking point in relations between Turkey and the US.

Commenting on the issue, Cavusoglu said that Turkey may lose confidence in the US if YPG and PYD do not leave the western bank of the Euphrates River.

Today it is difficult to predict how long the US-Turkey relations will remain tense, however it is not ruled out that Washington will not want the Turkish armed forces to destroy its main ally in Syria.

It is possible that YPG and PYD will leave the western bank of the Euphrates River, namely, Syria’s strategic Manbij city.

The US and Turkey are not the only players in the Syrian conflict - there are also Iran and Russia.

Ankara has been recently holding intensive consultations in the settlement of the Syrian crisis with these countries. This is while Washington has twice put Ankara in a spot during the "Shield of the Euphrates" operation.

Earlier, Cavusoglu said that the US did not provide Turkey with High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) to fight against the “Islamic State” (IS, ISIL, ISIS or Daesh), as it was agreed earlier.

The Free Syrian Army, supported by the Turkish armed forces, has been recently attacked by IS militants. Afterwards, the assistance of the US Air Forces, stationed at the Incirlik air base, was requested. However, the US bombers started bombing the corresponding positions only after three hours.

According to the statement issued by the Turkish Ministry of Defense, Ankara informed not only the US, but also the leadership of Iran and Russia (except the Syrian authorities) before launching the military operation.

The Arab media also reported that a Turkish intelligence delegation secretly visited Damascus before the "Shield Euphrates" operation. The Turkish authorities have denied the information, but official Damascus did not even bother to comment.

Moscow and Tehran believe that the "Shield of Euphrates" military operation in Syria was to be carried out in close coordination with Damascus. This is the point of Ankara’s disagreement with them.

Ankara does not rule out that Moscow and Tehran, expressing "displeasure" with the "Shield of Euphrates" operation, would like Ankara to start a direct dialogue with Damascus. However, in the current circumstances the direct official contact is unlikely to be achieved.

Growing discord between the US and Turkey amid the "Shield of the Euphrates" operation and at the same time, the normalization of the Russia-Turkey relations and consultations with Iran, give grounds to say that Ankara considers the US policy towards Syria a failure.

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Rufiz Hafizoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Arabic news service, follow him on Twitter: @rhafizoglu

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