A Turkish-Russian entente cordiale in the making
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| MK Bhadrakumar 23/10/2019 |
Shall we sit upon the ground and tell there is no longer daylight between Russia and Turkey? We are almost there. The Turkish incursion into Syria on Wednesday is the tipping point. Turkey and Russia are closely coordinating. Consider the following.
The White House announced Sunday it was withdrawing from northeastern Syria in advance of Turkey’s military operations across the border. President Donald Trump apparently made the decision after a phone call with Turkish president Recep Erdogan on Sunday. The whiplash around Trump’s decision rattled US’ allies.
There has been widespread criticism in the Beltway that the US is jeopardising its Kurdish partners on the ground and unleashing unpredictable consequences for Syria — and, above all, badly damaged US credibility. Some forewarn that Syrian conflict is intensifying just when the embers were cooling.
Some of this criticism may be true. Because, Turkey is vengeful. It has long wanted to move across the border into northern Syria, where it sees the Syrian Kurdish forces or YPG as joined at the hips with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK, separatists that Turkey considers a terrorist group that has waged an insurgency for decades, and has long put Turkey on edge.
