|
Trending Topics
|
Turkey's Syria Offensive Puts Alliance with U.S. near Breaking Point
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Soner Cagaptay - The war in Iraq solidified the views of many in the U.S. that Turkey wasn't a reliable ally, and in Turkey that the U.S. was a faraway power that creates chaos and civil war that Turkey then has to deal with. A decade later, Turkey turned a blind eye to radicals crossing into Syria in its push to oust Bashar al-Assad. These radicals morphed into ISIS. Resentment over the 4 million Syrian refugees that Turkey has taken in has been intensified by an economic downturn. It's forcing Erdogan to make it look like he's doing something to address the refugee problem. And that something will be to repatriate some refugees into Syria. Turkey's offensive is focused on an Arab-majority corridor where Turkish troops will, by and large, be welcomed. If Turkey goes maximalist and expands its reach into solidly Kurdish areas, then it will face an insurgency. The writer is director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute.