As the major Western powers continue their slide into irrelevance and become increasingly mired in the imbroglios of their own metropolitan ruling elites'making; bigger problems and more pressing issues of international import continue to spiral out of control even as the main western actors distance themselves from the realms of global, diplomatic Realpolitik.
The Trump administration's largely contrived trade contretemps with the PRC and the UK's almost sublimely surreal implementation / revocation of the EURef2016 decision to Leave the EU still hold centre-stage.
And meanwhile Syria and its peoples burn. This update on the atavistic urges of Turkish President Erdogan's drive to re-invent an ottoman empire,gleaned from SMM Syria :
" As Turkey and the United States achieved an agreement on the fate of Northern Syria, the legal government of Syrian Arab Republic has strongly condemned it claiming that this achievement constitutes a flagrant aggression against Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
While the sides of talks call the results of negotiations as “good start”, international community continues to keep silence and prefer not to comment why two independent states shape the destiny of the third one. Neither UN representatives nor Arab League countries pay its attention on the talks and are still unmoved by Northern Syria.
Nowadays Turkey is the state which tries to play a double game in Syria but falls between two stools. On the one hand the United States of America – Turkey’s NATO ally – consider Syrian Kurds as the closest partner in Syrian conflict. That’s the main reason why Turkey presidents’ threats are still on the “threat” level.
We’ve asked political commentator and Middle East researcher Marwa Osman her opinion on this issue. According to Marwa Osman the main goal which stands behind the talks between Turkey and the United States is the annexation of Northern Syria.
“What Turkey and the US are trying to do is to fight over who shall annex northern Syria first. They will both fail. The US is not capable of doing so militarily and Turkey will doom itself out of any future resolution if it continues to illegally occupy Syrian land. Turkey needs to remember that occupation creates resistance. Turkey won’t be able to handle the resistance…or at least for now since Erdogan is not doing so good politically in Turkey to begin with”, – Osman said.
“Northern Syria is Syrian. Kurds in Syria are Syrians even if they still support the American occupation of eastern Syria. This war will not end until all illegal foreign presence is removed. If you are a state not invited by the sovereign Syrian government then you will have to leave or face the consequences”, – Osman added.
On the other hand Hayat Tahrir al Sham militant group, which is partly funded by Turkish officials, looses its positions in Idlib province. Despite the agreement which was reached by the states of Astana format, Turkey continues to ignore its obligations regarding the de-escalation zone. It results in sufferings of civilians who lives in HTS-held areas. "
There you have it,two foreign powers both having violated Syria's territorial integrity and engaged in military action contrary to International Law.
In Erdogan's case,he instigated a reckless foreign military adventure designed to shore up his rapidly depleting domestic political stranglehold on the levers of power.The Turkish Lira is perpetually under siege on foreign currency markets,his country's credit rating is shot to hell and gone and domestic inflation and increasing unemployment are all heaping up social & economic powder kegs waiting for a match.
In Trump's case,he is utterly under the direction and influence of born again Washington neocon hawks who having gorged themselves on the spoils of militarism during the Bush and Clinton years are back for second helpings on a drastically curtailed foreign policy menu offering only charred remnants and slim pickings from what they had originally planned as a universal Arab Spring and a swathe of " colour " revolutions across the former USSR's landscape.
And so it goes...
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