Turkey’s Bungled Syria Policy

Erdogan's Turkey is supposed to be steering an independent foreign policy and also to be believed about its recent standing up to Uncle Sam and, yet, its pathetic reactions to the alleged chemical weapons attack in Eastern Ghouta indeed leaves a lot to be desired and, again, raises doubt about the real orientation of the Turkish government.

Indeed, this much is clear in the instant reaction of the Turkish officials, who have parroted London's and Washington's uncorroborated allegations of Syrian government's involvement in gassing its own civilian population in Douma on April 7th -- without even taking a breath of pause to ask if this allegation has any merits and whether or not it is a tissue of deliberate disinformation to spoil the victory of celebration of Syria-Russia-Iran in re-taking the Damascus suburbs from the hands of terrorists after nearly 7 years?

Instead, wasting no time, the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has gone full force in condemning Damascus for its role in the chemical attack, once again calling for the removal of President Bashar al-Assad.  Accusing Assad of murdering one million Syrian civilians, Mr. Cavusoglu has naturally exaggerated and turned a blind eye to the foreign-backed atrocities exacting a heavy price on Syria since 2011, with much Turkish assistance, including the reported purchase of stolen Syrian oil from the ISIS terrorists, some of whom are now re-dressed as Arab fighters alongside the Turkish army invading Syrian territory.  Without any surprise, Turkey has rejected Russia's call to turn over the gained territories including Afrin to the Syrian hands, intent on holding onto these territories in a veiled neo-Ottomanist expansionist project. 

A truly independent Turkey would have raised serious doubt about the veracity of US-led allegations against Damascus, calling for independent verification by experts instead of prematurely blaming Assad and echoing the unhealthy "post-fact" mindset of the Western governments that seek to act as judge and executioner, thus wreaking havoc on the world order.  Assad has now won over Eastern Ghouta and the Jihadist terrorists were already beginning to load into their buses as part of the Russian-brokered evacuation as of April 6th, the day before the alleged incident, so there was absolutely no motivation on Assad's part to resort to gas attack on its own citizens in order to turn the tide against himself, only a distorted mind in a Western capital is capable of fathoming this. But, in Ankara priding itself of political autonomy, the reduction of Turkey to an American appendage on the Douma allegations is quite troubling and, to Russia and Iran, raises a serious red flag about Turkey's true intentions, particularly since the Turks now have re-raised their old call for a no-fly zone.  It is time for both Iran and Russia to re-think their partnership with Turkey.