Friedrich Nietzsche said that we can only think those thoughts for which we have words. Sometimes we have words, but we do not have satisfactory explanations as to why things happen. Often, real understanding eludes us.

This is true of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s unwaveringly tough rhetoric on Syrian regime. It neither helps to end the bloodshed in the country, nor is there a real threat of a Turkish military incursion into Syria. But the question remains as to how Turkey will continue to strike a balance without falling into Assad’s quagmire as Ankara intimately engages with it.

“If those [who] came from thousands, ten thousand kilometers can justify their invasion of Iraq, we can’t sit in the stands watching the events in Syria with which we share a 910 kilometer border. Whatever is necessary, we must do that and we can,” Erdogan said in Gaziantep on Jan. 19. “Syria is as important as our domestic affairs.”

In Syria, innocence is long gone. The country is a crime zone. With the atrocities executed by the opposition, chances died for a decent revolution bringing down the Assad regime, and now neither side can claim the upper moral hand. Humanity is put to shame there.