Occupy Syria: Turkey Creates De-Facto Buffer Zone in Syria
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan called Syria a threat to Turkey and unveiled new rules of engagement for the military this week. If Syrian troops approach the border, they will now be targeted, writes Cengiz Candar. But the size and scope of this vaguely-defined area leaves the final decision to Turkey. - NATO stands with Turkey. It strongly denounced the Syrian regime and stated that the shooting down of the Turkish plane was unacceptable. This is the only thing that came out of the NATO meeting, which was called after Turkey invoked Article 4 [of NATO’s founding document]. Nothing else was expected. But, since NATO long ago declared that an intervention — like the one that took place in Libya — would be impossible in Syria, the only option left for NATO was to condemn Syria verbally and express solidarity with Turkey. However, as an added benefit, NATO’s involvement in the situation shows that Turkey is firmly anchored within the NATO system, despite earlier suspicions that Turkey might be acting autonomously, or even reorienting its political axis. At the outset of the Libya crisis, Prime Minister Erdogan’s first reaction was: “What is NATO doing there?” Today, however, when Turkey rang NATO’s doorbell when it conflicted with Syria, Turkey seems to be openly happy with NATO’s solidarity. These two reactions come from the same government.