Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 3
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Military operations in Syria conducted by Russia against the "Islamic State" (ISIS), which is considered to be the common enemy for everyone, are interpreted differently.
On Oct.2, Turkey and six countries-USA, UK, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Qatar urged Russia to stop inflicting air strikes on Syrian opposition.
Russia, in turn, denies this allegation and demands to provide facts proving that blows were inflicted not on the militant positions.
On Oct.2, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has remained silent for so long, said that while the coalition forces conduct operations against the ISIS militants, Russia started to bomb the moderate opposition.
Erdogan also said that the military operations in Syria conducted by Russia may increase the number of refugees in Turkey. On Oct.2, over 2,000 Syrian Turkomans gathered on the Turkish-Syrian border in order to enter Turkey.
Political circles of Turkey believe that Russia has long been a part of the military conflict in Syria, like other countries, the interests of which collide in Syria.
One of such countries is surely Turkey, which has its "red lines" in Syria.
The first "red line" of Turkey is of course creation of a safe zone in Syria.
This is a kind of a buffer zone for stationing Syrian refugees from Turkey, as well as protecting from the threats of Syrian militants. According to Ankara's plan, this zone must be protected by the moderate opposition and the Free Syrian Army.
Currently, there are over 2 million Syrian refugees in Turkey.
According to the Turkish Office for the Prevention and Elimination of Consequences of Emergency (AFAD), the maintenance of Syrian refugees has already cost Ankara over $6 billion.
This amount is huge for Ankara, especially taking into account that Turkey has been recently taking actions to strengthen its economy.
The second important moment for Turkey in Syria is the need of President Assad's quitting the political arena.
Ankara thinks that Russia's military operations strengthen President Assad's positions. And Russia's actions are aimed at this. Strengthening of President Assad's positions for Ankara is a complete failure of the Syrian policy of Turkey.
The third important point for Turkey in Syria is the intensification of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) - a Syrian wing of the PKK amid the military operations in this country.
This party has been recognized by Ankara as a terrorist organization.
It is clear that no matter how Turkey reacts to Russia's actions in Syria, at present, Ankara has no levers of pressure on Russia.
It will be hard to preserve good relations between Ankara and Moscow amid the military operations in Syria. It is not excluded that all this will affect the energy relations between the sides.
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Rufiz Hafizoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Arabic news service, follow him on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
