The Turkish government insists its plane was shot down by rockets, despite Syrian claims to the contrary [Reuters]
Turkey Learns Who Its Real Friends Are – So Much For 'Strategic Realignment' -- The Guardian
The Syrian crisis has exposed the folly and weakness of Ankara's attempts to become a regional superpower.
Funny how times change. When the Bush administration sought permission to transit its Iraq invasion troops through Turkish territory in early 2003, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ankara's soon-to-be installed prime minister and his Justice and Development party (AKP) bluntly refused. Their bold defiance of America's will won plaudits around the Arab world, not least from Syria.
With President Bashar al-Assad's regime, not that of Saddam Hussein, now viewed in Ankara as a dangerous enemy, and with the prospect of a bilateral or regional conflict inching closer following Syria's shooting down of a Turkish military plane, Erdogan has swiftly changed his tune. Unwilling to take on Assad by himself, Erdogan turned to the US and Nato for support this week. So much for Turkey's much discussed "strategic realignment".
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My Comment: Talk about reality hitting home. Turkey does not have the military resources to confront Syria .... and more to the point .... is unwilling to spend the money. The key paragraph in this post is the following ....
.... Ankara's twin priorities are both domestic in nature: modernisation and economic growth. Turkey does not want, and cannot afford, a war along its southern border that would jeopardise these aims, further destabilise the Kurdish regions, and seriously compromise its broader regional interests. Assad, presumably, knows this well.
Update: Is Turkey moving toward 'hard power' over Syria? -- Mustafa Akyol, Special to CNN
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