Turkish Peace Operations in Syria (Operation Olive Branch) Updates & Discussions

[Bismarck]

I dont like Erdogan nor do i like Assad yet i think our foreign policy in Syria was a disaster, its not just black and white. You should be able to call mistakes or you will be doomed to repeat it over and over.

What is a "good" foreign policy regarding to Syria?

 

[Nein]

Syria has been supporting and sheltering PKK since the 80s. They literally have had training camps there. The Assad family did this to have a threatening chip against Turkey.

Turkey supporting rebels is a completely different scenario. (At least until that point) the opposition had no terroristic track record. They were just the majority of the country seeking justice from a dictatorial family from a minority ruling the country for decades. Turkey did nothing wrong against Syria, only the Assad family. When the country is ruled the way the Assad family did, the people are going to rise against the government one way or another, weather Turkey helps them or not.

Last but not least it is not backstabbing if you warn them many times about not massacring their own citizens for protesting. Backstabbing is when you officially deny it, but actually pretty boldly support an armed organization that is widely known as terrorists against your neighbors just so you can pressure them in negotiations.

As I said Turkey did nothing malicious in Syria, but even if it had done so, it would have been 100% justified as payback.

Assad crime family had been working agaibst Turkey for decades if Turkey supported rebels and other proxies I believe Turkey did the right thing.

Syria supported both PKK and Asala so I believe Turkey did a payback.

 

[xenon54 out]

What is a "good" foreign policy regarding to Syria?

A more non interventionist.

 

[azyr]

You can't aspire to be a regional leader and at the same time afford to ignore a major intervention next door (that was masked as a civil war). To put matters in perspective, said country has been the source of your security problems.

You want Turkey to bury it's head in the sand and pretend like nothing is happening while the US flies over thousands of miles to decide what geometric shape the next country they will carve up look like? Does that sound even remotely reasonable?

How will you even try and influence any other country in the region if that was the case - how much influence would you have left.

Turkey's policy regarding Syria has been bad from the start and we've made grave mistakes. But I don't believe one of them was to get involved.

We lacked determination and strong will regarding Syria. We should have intervened way back in Kobane before the US managed to entrench themselves. That was the grave mistake. We also should NOT have moved the Süleyman Şah Türbe - we should have surrounded it and expanded from there.

Wars are won on the ground and inked by politicians. The way it is now, we're trying to win a war at the table, that's not going to work.

We're still continuing the same grave mistakes, half the army is just sitting at the border while Erdoğan is threatening from the rooftops again and again.

That is a GRAVE mistake. Turkey has been a formidable threat to any country in the middle east, including Israel. When you start acting like a banana republic and thump your chest at every turn it gets very old very fast.

 

[GlobalMillitary96]

You can't aspire to be a regional leader and at the same time afford to ignore a major intervention next door (that was masked as a civil war). To put matters in perspective, said country has been the source of your security problems.

You want Turkey to bury it's head in the sand and pretend like nothing is happening while the US flies over thousands of miles to decide what geometric shape the next country they will carve up look like? Does that sound even remotely reasonable?

How will you even try and influence any other country in the region if that was the case - how much influence would you have left.

Turkey's policy regarding Syria has been bad from the start and we've made grave mistakes. But I don't believe one of them was to get involved.

We lacked determination and strong will regarding Syria. We should have intervened way back in Kobane before the US managed to entrench themselves. That was the grave mistake. We also should NOT have moved the Süleyman Şah Türbe - we should have surrounded it and expanded from there.

Wars are won on the ground and inked by politicians. The way it is now, we're trying to win a war at the table, that's not going to work.

We're still continuing the same grave mistakes, half the army is just sitting at the border while Erdoğan is threatening from the rooftops again and again.

That is a GRAVE mistake. Turkey has been a formidable threat to any country in the middle east, including Israel. When you start acting like a banana republic and thump your chest at every turn it gets very old very fast.

This.



Although I am not a supporter of Erdogan, I, just like everybody else thought that Assad would fall just like every other leader during the Arab spring. However this was not the case.

I think some of the major errors we did were:

• Allowing the US to use our bases and our borders in order to fuel the war in Syria - ideally we would have blocked such activities. This also could have prevented the rise of YPG because the USA sent weapons to them from our own bases...
• Supporting assorted Islamist groups that were created by the west and Arab countries - we never should have put our resources into supporting any of these groups, they were never going to last anyway
• Not striking YPG and ISIS in their infancy - we should have dealt with both threats ferociously from the beginning. Instead we watched one grow and the other take over. We should have been more proactive from the start.

 

[Bismarck]

A more non interventionist.

A war direct on your border. You can't stay out. That's impossible.

 

[xenon54 out]

A war direct on your border. You can't stay out. That's impossible.

If intgervention then the way US offered to us years ago, Erdo said he doesnt want to go in alone and refused the offer so the US picked ypg, in the end we went in alone and ypg got a huge territory which could have been a coalition with Turkey in it.
Being stubborn isnt always helpful as you see.

 

[Bismarck]

If intgervention then the way US offered to us years ago, Erdo said he doesnt want to go in alone and refused the offer so the US picked ypg, in the end we went in alone and ypg got a huge territory which could have been a coalition with Turkey in it.
Being stubborn isnt always helpful as you see.

US forced you to go for war. Not for a honorable and justified war, without any permission from UN and any single parrtner.

 

[TheMightyBender]

If intgervention then the way US offered to us years ago, Erdo said he doesnt want to go in alone and refused the offer so the US picked ypg, in the end we went in alone and ypg got a huge territory which could have been a coalition with Turkey in it.
Being stubborn isnt always helpful as you see.

Quit making stuff up. The main reason Turkey didnt go in into Syria was because the retarded opposition (aka kilicdaroglu) was hell bent on preventing it. They rallied people against the move so Erdogan couldnt do it. I can remember the headlines like it was yesterday - “Main opposition leader warns the ruling party against ‘adventures’ in northern Syria.”

They even tried to blame the government for the Reyhanli terror attacks saying the government did it to find a motive to attack north Syria. Turkey could have gained much ground and gave a response for the Reyhanli attacks but it couldnt, because the opposition had twisted the news to hamstring the government.

If Turkey lost an opportunity by not invading Syria back then it is unconditionally 100% the oppositions fault. Because the opposition in Turkey is ready to sabotage Turkey’s interests just for the sake of opposing Erdogan. Back then you and other people like you were yapping day and night about how invading Syria is a mistake but now that you see you were wrong you try to blame it on the government. Well no matter what you do, you cant change history.

If it was today nobody would give a rat’s *** what kilicdaroglu says because everyone knows him well now, but back then he had just a little bit of respect in people’s eyes.

 

[what]

The funny part is that Turkish members who regularly defend Assad are the same people who are fiercely opposing Erdoğan. If it is okay to support a dictator in Syria, why are you criticizing Erdoğan as a "dictator"?

I just want peace, I'm not supporting Assad but I prefer him and stability over YPG or a split country or even more years of war.

 

[bsruzm]

The funny part is that Turkish members who regularly defend Assad are the same people who are fiercely opposing Erdoğan. If it is okay to support a dictator in Syria, why are you criticizing Erdoğan as a "dictator"?

That hurts... I wouldn't like to respond to that.

 

[CAN_TR]

The funny part is that Turkish members who regularly defend Assad are the same people who are fiercely opposing Erdoğan. If it is okay to support a dictator in Syria, why are you criticizing Erdoğan as a "dictator"?

Assad is a dictator, so was Ghaddafi and Saddam but we now how Iraq and Libya was under their reign.

But if i could choose between YPG, Al Qaida and Assad i would choose Assad as my neighbour anyday.

 

[HannibalBarca]

Quiz Time!
Who is it...

 

[CAN_TR]

Quiz Time!
Who is it...

HTS/Al Qaida/Saudi & UAE proxies

 

[bsruzm]

Assad is a dictator, so was Ghaddafi and Saddam but we now how Iraq and Libya was under their reign.

But if i could choose between YPG, Al Qaida and Assad i would choose Assad as my neighbour anyday.

Better! No neighbor, no problem