— The Erimtan Angle —

The wily Davutoğlu went on the record to say that “We will help coalition forces”. ‘Turkish Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, has told the BBC that Turkey will continue to help coalition forces if there is a coordinated plan for the creation of a ”democratic” Syria. Speaking to Lyse Doucet, Mr Davutoglu called for the equipping and training of the Free Syrian Army. He also described the challenges of saving the embattled Syrian town of Kobane (28 Oct 2014)’.[1]

Davutoğlu’s boss, the Turkish Prez (RTE or Recep Tayyip Erdoğan) declarerd 4 days earlier, during a press conference in the Estonian capital of Tallinn, that “[a]s I said before, we told Mr. Obama the main group to be cooperated with is the FSA and secondarily the Peshmerga. After a few days, the PYD agreed for 200 Peshmerga to come. According to the information I have recently received, this number has been reduced to 150 now”.[2]  Turkey thus insists that the real fight in Syria’s not-so civil war is the one to overthrow Bashar al-Assad and that the one force to achieve this is the Turkey-sponsored Free Syrian Army . . . But then, on Thursday, 27 October. the news agency Reuters reported from Beirut that the “United States does not expect Syrian rebels it plans to train to fight Islamic State militants to also take on President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, but sees them as a crucial part of a political solution to end the war, the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper quoted a senior U.S. official as saying. The United States, which is leading an international coalition bombing Islamic State in Syria, has said it wants to train and equip ‘moderate’ rebels to fight the militant group which has seized tracts of land in Syria and neighboring Iraq”.[3]

General John Allen, the U.S. representative to the coalition, told the Asharq al-Awsat daily: “No. What we would like to see is for the FSA and the forces that we will ultimately generate, train and equip to become the credible force that the Assad government ultimately has to acknowledge and recognize”.[4]  The General went on to say that “[t]here is not going to be a military solution here”.[5]  Does this now really mean that the U.S. has taken a major U-turn on its road to Damascus???  Allen added that the “intent is that in the political outcome, [the opposition] must be a prominent – perhaps the preeminent voice – at the table to ultimately contribute to the political outcome that we seek”, clarifying next that the “outcome that we seek in Syria is akin to the [current anti-Islamic State] strategy that fits into a much larger regional strategy and that outcome is a political outcome that does not include Assad”.[6]  So, in other words, it’s a U-turn that is not a U-turn, as Assad still will have to go, one way or another . . .

For good measure, Reuters specifies that the “U.S. President Barack Obama said last month he wanted to train and equip Free Syrian Army rebels to ‘strengthen the opposition as the best counterweight to the extremists’ and to prevent U.S. troops from being dragged into another ground war”.[7]  Last month, Lilly Martin Sahiounie wrote from Latakia that “[e]very uniform, bullet, weapon and vehicle that the FSA use is from the American taxpayer. In fact, America is now in the process of sending even more money, weapons and training to this very same Free Syrian Army, who is fighting for Radical Islamic ideology, and are bound and determined to remove the current Syrian government, so they can form an Islamic State in Syria, with Sharia as the only constitution needed”.[8]  After all, Vice President Joe Biden stated some time ago indicated that there is no moderate opposition in Syria.[9]

[1] “Turkey PM Ahmet Davutoglu: ‘We will help coalition forces'” BBC News (28 Oct 2014). http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29797270.

[2] “Erdoğan announces Turkey will allow FSA to Kobane, PYD says talks continue” Hürriyet Daily News (24 Oct 2014). http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/erdogan-announces-turkey-will-allow-fsa-to-kobane-pyd-says-talks-continue.aspx?pageID=238&nID=73424&NewsCatID=352.

[3] “U.S. sees Syria rebels in political, not military solution: Asharq al-Awsat newspaper” Reuters (27 Oct 2014). http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/27/us-mideast-crisis-syria-rebels-idUSKBN0IG0PV20141027.

[4] “U.S. sees Syria rebels in political, not military solution: Asharq al-Awsat newspaper”

[5] “U.S. sees Syria rebels in political, not military solution: Asharq al-Awsat newspaper”.

[6] “U.S. sees Syria rebels in political, not military solution: Asharq al-Awsat newspaper”.

[7] “U.S. sees Syria rebels in political, not military solution: Asharq al-Awsat newspaper”.

[8i] Lilly Martin Sahiounie, “The reality of the FSA that you will never see in the media – stop Obama supporting Terrorists” Friends of Syria (27 September 2014). http://friendsofsyria.co/2014/09/29/the-truth-behind-the-propaganda-in-syria-and-the-reality-of-the-us-funded-fsa/.

[9] “Biden Spills the Beans: Turkey, UAE, Saudi, and Qatari as well as U.S. Responsibility, 2012/2014” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (08 Oct 2014). https://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/biden-spills-the-beans-turkey-uae-saudi-and-qatari-as-well-as-u-s-responsibility-20122014/.

Leave a comment