Aggressor Turkey Threatens Syria

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Turkey is part of the problem, not the solution to Syria's liberating struggle.

Throughout nine years of US aggression, Turkey has been complicit in high crimes of war and against humanity committed by the Obama and Trump regimes.

Wannabe sultan Erdogan covets northern Syrian territory, wanting it annexed to Turkey, especially its oil producing areas.

He's guilty of breaching Geneva, Astana and Sochi conflict resolution deals, along with the 1998 Adana Agreement.

Under its terms, Syria and Turkey agreed to cooperate in combatting terrorism. Obligations complied to by Damascus were flagrantly breached by Ankara.

Aided by Russian airpower, Syrian forces are advancing in Idlib province, liberating towns and villages from US/Turkish supported jihadists.

On Wednesday, Erdogan threatened to attack Syrian forces if they don't withdraw from their own sovereign territory he wants control over, saying:

If they don't pull back by end of February he'll "take matters into his own hands," his unacceptable threat coming after he and Putin spoke by phone on the situation in northern Syria.

A Kremlin statement said both leaders "agreed to take emergency measures, primarily at the level of the defense ministries of Russia and Turkey, to further strengthen the coordination of activities in Syria."

Relations with a tyrant like Erdogan are never easy, Russia involved in combatting terrorism he supports while pretending otherwise.

He falsely claimed that "Turkey will have no business in Syria whenever a full inclusive charter is written, a government that represents the entire Syrian people and terrorists as well as other foreign forces leave the Syrian lands," adding: 

"No one has authority to question our presence in Syria until that day comes."

Turkey illegally occupies Syrian territory. Damascus wants its forces out and support by the Erdogan regime for terrorists to cease.

According to Syria's Foreign Ministry, Damascus "deplores the insistence of the Turkish regime's president Erdogan on continuing the lying and misleading regarding his acts in Syria, particularly his claim with regard to the entrance of his forces to northern Aleppo according to Adana Agreement on combating terrorism" that he supports.

As Syrian forces advance in Idlib, Erdogan's control over northern parts of the country weakens, why he's threatening Damascus, wanting to maintain unlawful control over areas he illegally occupies.

In dealing with him, Russia has a tiger by the tail, a figure never to be trusted, a tyrant ruling with an iron fist, imprisoning or otherwise eliminating critics at home, notably journalists but even young children.

Separately, Syria's military gave US/Turkish supported terrorists one last chance to lay down their arms and cease fighting or be forcibly routed by government troops.

Turkish Foreign Minister Melvut Cavusoglu said he told Sergey Lavrov that Ankara will retaliate against Syrian forces (in their own territory) if Russia doesn't get them to withdraw from areas Turkey wants control over.

Erdogan plays the Russian and US cards simultaneously for what he can gain from both countries.

He's an enemy of regional peace and supporter of terrorism, why Syrian authorities revile him.

Russia has its hands full restraining him. Tyrants aren't easy to deal with.

VISIT MY WEBSITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

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