There was a very long and insightful interview that appeared at the end of last year in what is virtually the final remaining opposition newspaper in Turkey, Cumhuriyet (which may not have long left to go) with Turkish international affairs expert Prof. Dr. İlhan Uzgel in which he made the following points about Syria:
• There was a deal done between Russia and America in 2013. Under the deal, Assad gets to stay but the Kurds retain their autonomy in the north of the Syria and come under American patronage.
• He says this strategy has been a great success for the Americans, both because they have seen to it that Syria has been reduced to rubble and so the Russians are not left with much of value under the control, while the Americans now have their own troops stationed in seven places in the north of Syria and they are constructing an airfield there, things that it would previously have been unthinkable for the Americans to do in Syria.
(Interview in Turkish)
http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/siya ... nilgi.htmlI am starting to wonder if the purpose July’s coup attempt in Turkey was to pressurise the Erdoğan regime to abandon its Neo-Ottoman dreams in Syria and to start cooperating with the new plan, which includes cooperating with Russia (the pressure being applied by the Americans). Just a conspiracy theory, but it fits all the facts.