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Impending anti-terrorism format of Turkey, Russia & Iran

Türkiye Materials 20 August 2016 08:00 (UTC +04:00)
Iranian-Russian block fighting against terrorism, more specifically, against the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria, contributed to increasing penetration of radicals from around the world into the region
Impending anti-terrorism format of Turkey, Russia & Iran

Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 19

By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:

Iranian-Russian block fighting against terrorism, more specifically, against the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria, contributed to increasing penetration of radicals from around the world into the region. The US and the West haven’t had success in the fight against the IS, either.

Syria has currently become a kind of training ground, where Sunni radicals are at a war with Hezbollah (Shi'a Islamist militant group and political party based in Lebanon) and government forces, as well as among themselves.

All these groups, with the exception of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), consider the West and the US their main enemies.

Thus, it is much more profitable for many countries that these groups continue to fight among themselves, away from those countries’ borders. This tactic, of course, could be considered ideal, if mainly civilians didn’t die as a result of military actions.

Protraction of the conflict in Syria also springs from the ethnic and religious composition of Syria’s population, which includes mostly Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Turkomans and Alawites.

On the other hand, settlement of the Syrian crisis is delayed because almost all players in the region – the West, including the US, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and Russia – have for five years tried to solve the problem solely within their interests.

It is not a secret that without Turkey’s participation, none of the parties, in particular, Iran or Russia, can solve this problem.

Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Aug. 18 that Turkey, as other countries, was not successful in its policy towards Syria. Thus, Turkey criticized itself for the first time for its Syria policy.

Today, it is not a secret that there is a necessity to introduce new mechanisms of cooperation for solution of the Syrian crisis, since almost all of the steps, taken previously, failed.

Earlier, Russia and Iran declared that Turkey can play an important role in resolving the Syrian crisis. Ankara also has a positive attitude towards this issue. This was confirmed by the statements of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, when they indirectly admitted that only Russia, Turkey and Iran can solve the Syrian conflict.

It is not excluded that Turkey can give Russia an access to its military bases. Military bases in Turkey’s eastern provinces of Mus and Bitlis can be among such facilities.

Given this, it can be noted that a new format of trilateral cooperation between Turkey, Russia and Iran can be created in the region in order to resolve the Syrian conflict.

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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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