Jerusalem Report

Entangled in Syria

10/17/2012 12:41 By BRUCE MADDY-WEITZMAN

The Turkish government faces tough choices in how to engage in a conflict it wants no part of.

Syrian refugees: Islahiye camp in Gazintep, Turkey

Photo by: REUTERS/Osman Orsal

The end game of Syria’s brutal civil war, now 19 months old, is not yet in sight. But the recent escalation of tension along the Syrian-Turkish border – including the killing of five Turkish civilians by shelling from Syria, retaliatory Turkish artillery and mortar strikes, the beefing up of Turkish ground and air force units along the common border and a Turkish parliamentary resolution authorizing the government to take military action to protect the country’s borders – has increased the prospect of Turkish military intervention in support of the anti-regime forces in Syria, notwithstanding the Turkish authorities’ desire to avoid it, and the Turkish public’s opposition as well.

The spillover of the conflict into the Kurdish regions of Turkey and Syria has already complicated matters, and will pose further challenges to the Turkish authorities if they do become further entangled in Syria. Relations with Iran, a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, are already frayed and likely to worsen further. And relations with Russia have also become tense, following Turkey’s interception of a Damascus-bound Russian civilian airplane, which Turkey said was improperly carrying military equipment to Syria.

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Entangled in Syria

The Turkish government faces tough choices in how to engage in a conflict it wants no part of.

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