Does Turkey’s Erdogan And His Saudi Allies Really Want Defeat of ISIS in Syria?

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Is Turkey’s Erdogan really a foe of ISIS?

[Editorial]

Poor Syria — pawn in a civil war driven primarily by outsiders who want conflict in order to fulfill their own agenda.

All peoples have a right to rise up against tyrants. When momentum builds and the tide turns against any regime nothing can stop a popular uprising from eventually succeeding. It’s been proven in many places; from Cuba, Vietnam, China, Burkina Faso, Egypt (even with its relapse) and elsewhere.

In Syria what may have started off as an uprising against Bashar al-Assad has been hijacked by outsiders. Assad’s opponents are mostly Sunni Muslims, the majority population in Syria–he belongs to Alawites who are associated with the minority Shiites.

Saudia Arabia and Turkey are predominantly Sunni; Iran is Shiite. Saudi Arabia and Turkey with their allies are fighting a proxy war against Iran and her allies.

The elephants are trampling all over Syria. 

The Saudis have backed various fighting militias with financing and weapons. Turkey has been a conduit allowing men and weapons to flow through its borders and also backing various militias. If Assad was strong enough to sponsor rebels into Turkey the Ankara regime would invade.

Turkey also wants to keep the Kurds on the defensive. It fears the emergence of an independent Kurdish across its border; it believes this would inspire more separatism within its own borders.

Both Turkey and Saudi Arabia see Iran as a mortal enemy; as does Israel.

On the other hand Iran also sees Saudi Arabia and Turkey as enemies. Not only are Iran and Saudi Arabia fighting a proxy war in Syria but the two sides also support opposing forces in war-torn Yemen, where Saudi Arabia has committed war crimes with its bombing campaigns –without any rebuke from the major powers. 

Iran backs Assad’s regime. Russia also is now the major powerful supporter of Assad. Russia fears that should Syria fall to the Assad opponents, including ISIS, many of the fighters who hail from Russia would the return home to sow terror.

Undoubtedly ISIS emerged and grew after Syria’s uprising was hijacked by outsiders and many ISIS supporters are also associated with the former Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq toppled by George W. Bush.

There can be no such thing as “moderate” rebels in Syria where the brutality knows no bounds. No one fights with kid gloves when all are busy hacking each other. The beheadings ISIS has become known for predate the Syrian war. The brutality mirrors the decapitations and lynchings of Muammar al-Quathafi’s supporters in Libya. It’s likely that those forces fighting to topple the regime in Syria will end up being worse than Assad and completely destroy the country; just as the NATO-backed victors have ruined Libya.

After the recent attack in Paris which took the lives of 129 people, and of which ISIS claimed responsibility, Francoise Hollande the French president vowed “merciless” revenge. He’s traveled to the U.S. and to Russia to get commitment from President Obama and President Putin to coordinate all their efforts in the fight against ISIS.

But there’s a problem. Your biggest enemy isn’t necessarily your friend’s biggest enemy.

Media focus on the narrative that the obstacle to fighting ISIS comes from Russia, which reportedly has been targeting other anti-Assad forces but not ISIS.

So what’s to stop the U.S., France and Britain from unleashing their aerial firepower against ISIS with or without Russia’s involvement or support?

Perhaps an important angle is being left out?

Could it be that it’s Turkey and Saudi Arabia who are the ones not keen to see the total demise of ISIS? After all, Turkey and Saudi Arabia see Assad as their number one enemy; and ISIS seems to be the most capable force so far.

If ISIS is completely destroyed who would topple Assad? Certainly not “moderate” rebels?

Consider the fact that just when Russia was being approached by the U.S. and France to join in coordinated attacks against ISIS suddenly Turkey turns everything upside down by downing the Russian jet. Even if Turkey’s argument that the jet strayed into Turkish air space for 17 seconds is true –which Russia disputes– was that sufficient justification to shoot down a plane belonging to a potential ally in the fight against ISIS?

Unless Turkey doesn’t want Russia as an ally of course and ISIS isn’t Turkey’s existential foe.

There’s a pattern.

After faring poorly in Parliamentary elections in Turkey president Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched attacks against Kurds invoking nationalism while stoking more violence as militant Kurds retaliated; but it paid off as Erdogan won recent elections.

Curiously, while there has been much discussion about how Russia and Syria have been hitting other rebel groups except ISIS, there’s less talk about how Turkey has been hitting the Kurds rather than ISIS.

Let’s remove the blinders and question all parties that have hidden agenda in Syria.

The Syrian people deserve an end to this ugly, deadly, destructive proxy war fought on their soil.

 

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