Turkey / Russia / US Play Confused – and Confusing – Game in Syria

Turkish President Erdogan with Vladimir Putin … Who’s picking whose pocket ??? … And which one is sure he’s the one doing the picking ???

It’s become clear over the years the Kurds are the only truly trustworthy local partner for the US in the bloodbath that is Syria …

Yet Turkish President Erdogan has made equally clear that stopping ANY kind of movement towards Kurdish autonomy is his PRIME goal —

much more important to him than derailing ISIS …

And since Russia’s main goal is to preserve the Assad regime —

hence maintaining the “Shiite crescent” stretching across the Middle East,

it remains completely unclear how this wretched situation is ever going to end —

momentary co-operation between Russia and Turkey notwithstanding …

A sad sad situation for all the “everyday people” caught in this grisly cross-fire …

“Russia appears to have arrived at an accommodation in which the Turks are moving to establish a security zone in northern Syria to preclude Syrian Kurds from setting up an autonomous region.

In return, the Turks appear to be backing off their efforts to unseat President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, who, with Russian help, is strengthening his hold on the country’s major cities to the south.

“The Russian-Turkish rapprochement is largely tactical,” said James F. Jeffrey, a former United States ambassador to Turkey.

“Russia can live for now with a Turkish enclave in northern Syria if it does not threaten the Assad regime.

And it allows Russia to exploit the U.S. shift to Turkey’s rival, the Y.P.G., by providing air support to the Turks against the Islamic State, which the U.S. inexplicably is not providing” …

As Turkey’s casualties near Al Bab have mounted, Turkish officials have complained about the lack of American air support and

have even made veiled threats that Turkey might suspend allied combat flights against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria

from its major base at Incirlik, which would be a major blow to the American-led air campaign.

American officials suggested that the holdup in carrying out allied airstrikes in recent weeks was related to

a Turkish decision to ban the Americans from flying reconnaissance drones in and around Al Bab to help identify and confirm targets, as well as bad weather.

The Turkish military said that measure was needed to ensure that no potentially hostile aircraft flew over its troops,

but it has hampered the United States’ ability to carry out airstrikes without endangering civilians.

Operating without the benefit of precise intelligence, the United States recently engaged in what officials called a “show of force” operation in which American aircraft flew low over Al Bab and dropped flares.

But last week, the Turks agreed that the United States could fly drones and other aircraft to gather intelligence,

which paves the way for the American-led coalition to carry out airstrikes against the Islamic State in Al Bab, American officials said.

The United States regards the Kurdish forces as some of the most effective fighters in the campaign against the Islamic State in Syria.

But in deference to Turkish sensitivities, the Americans have declined to arm them directly.

The Turks, however, regard them as nothing more than an arm of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, an insurgent Kurdish group in Turkey and Iraq.

The Turks have blamed the group for killing dozens of Turkish security forces in recent weeks.”

And that, of course, is the crux of the problem …

It’s become clear over the years that the Kurds are the only truly trustworthy local partner for the US …

Yet Erdogan has made equally clear that stopping ANY kind of movement towards Kurdish autonomy is his PRIME goal —

much more important to him than derailing ISIS …

And since Russia’s main goal is to preserve the Asad regime —

hence maintaining the “Shiite crescent” stretching across the Middle East,

it remains completely unclear how this wretched situation is ever going to end —

momentary co-operation between Russia and Turkey notwithstanding …

A sad sad situation for all the “everyday people” caught in this grisly cross-fire …

Source: Airstrikes by Russia Buttress Turkey in Battle vs. ISIS – The New York Times