Turkey's Syria Predicament
Cengiz Candar writes that Turkey cannot escape the consequences of the civil war in Syria.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in a joint press conference with the Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos lambasted the European Union, United Nations and the international community, which means the United States and Europe. It was all about Syria.
Davutoglu said 70,000 people have died so far in Syria and ironically asked: “Does this have to reach 700,000 to take action?” He then appealed for “More pressure.”
This was a hopeless appeal. Who is going to take action? EU? The U.N.? Undefined international community with no known sanction mechanisms? Since none of them has not taken any action until now, why would they do now?
Doesn’t Davutoglu know that his appeal will fall on deaf ears? Of course he does. Therefore, we have to see his appeal not as actually seeking a result, but Turkey’s shifting the responsibility for the bloody panorama in Syria to the U.N. and the West after being harshly criticized by the Turkish public opinion for its Syria policy.
