Does Turkey withdraw from Syria or does it resort to sabotage?

Written by Nasser Kandil,

Suddenly the National Security Council of Turkey announced the end of the process of the Shield of the Euphrates which started in the last August through the entry of the Turkish army formally without the consensus of the Syrian government to Jarablos the Syrian bordered town with  Turkey after it got it from ISIS without fight, it has announced that the task of the process is to reach to Al Bab city then to Manbej to participate in liberating Raqqa from ISIS, but now it announces the end of the process and that the process has achieved its goals. The Turkish army accompanied with the militias neither were able to enter to Manbej nor to participate in Raqqa process, and thus the goal of the process has not been achieved and its task has not been completed, so what does the decision of the National Security Council of Turkey to end the task and to announce the achievement of its goals mean?

The announcement coincides with the failure of the US-Turkish talks to reach to an understanding about the battle of Raqqa and the participation of the Turkish army in it. the Kurdish knot which caused the Turkish entry to Syria along with the announcement of the war against ISIS and bearing the consequences of it become critical for the Turks, because the American sticks more to them even if Turkey gets angry. Russia is not ready to accept deleting any Syrian inevitable component partner in any Syrian-Syrian forthcoming settlement just for the sake of Turkey, furthermore, Russia has notified the Turkish President its solidarity with Turkey in refusing any Kurdish security military presence or the emergence of Kurdish canton, but it has notified the Turkish President that the way to that is to cancel any opposite military security privacy in the Syrian territories, and the return of all the Syrian territories to the Syrian army under a unified  Syrian government that is recognized by everyone, and given the support in the war on terrorism, so is the Turkish announcement a step to accept the Russian advice to withdraw from the Turkish military privacy in Syria at the expense of the Syrian country?

The announcement of the end of the task and its success means practically the withdrawal of the Turkish army from the Syrian territories with no return once again, the task has been accomplished successfully according to the Turkish statement, but there are no indicators for the improvement of the Turkish-Russian relationships in order to consider it a step in the context of positive initiative. Turkey continues launching positions that put Moscow and Washington in one status, because it considers that their dealing with the Kurdish groups is a double-dealing, this means that Turkey has decided to change the cooperation with Moscow and Washington according to its conditions, most importantly, with respect to Moscow, to refuse the dealing with the Syrian country, and with respect to Washington to refuse the cooperation with the Kurds, so what will it do now?

The decision means that Turkey is saying to Moscow and Washington that it is a strategic vacancy so try to make use of it, but there are militias supported implicitly by Turkey, and Ankara is not responsible for them. They may clash tomorrow with the Kurds so you cannot ask Ankara to control them, or they may clash with the Syrian army and you cannot tell Ankara that it ensures cease-fire according to the Astana understanding, the guarantee has become political without any field influence. Turkey says that the war of Al Nusra on the Syrian army is ready to expand to north but Turkey does not have the ability to do anything or to be accused with the involvement, so the only result needed by Turkey is more chaos to show the importance of its role.

The Turkish considerations reveal the deadly arrogance which controls the considerations of the Turkish President Recep Erdogan. The Turkish claim of getting out of Syria will lead the Syrian army to put the factions sponsored by Turkey between two choices the serious integration in Astana and its implications, or to face the danger of the military process in which every available weapon can be used without taking into account the Turkish military presence that is supposed that is not no longer exist. Moscow has shown that it does not support the stubbornness, but it confronts it stubbornly and the Turkish behavior is as the Israeli war which followed the visit of Netanyahu to Moscow will get a response as the one received by Netanyahu.

Ankara is moving from the incitement to the exaction, while Moocow, Damascus, and Tehran have a crucial position where there is no place for the exaction, Washington has lost its ally in the NATO as a reliable agent for the political and the military tampering, so it has to accept the fact that its presence has become limited in the areas of the Kurds’ deployment, and the rest areas where the armed groups are either led by Al Nusra or they are occupied by ISIS.

Translated by Lina Shehadeh,