Syria might be getting all the blame for firing the first shot in the sudden
eruption of hostilities on the Turko-Syrian border, but Tayyip Erdogan, the
Turkish prime minister, can hardly claim to be an innocent party when it comes
to stoking the fires of a conflict that retains the potential to ignite a
regional conflagration.
For more than a year now Turkey has been taking a lead role in the campaign
to overthrow the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Working closely
with a number of Gulf states, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, that are also
committed to ridding Damascus of Assad’s Alawite clique, the Turks have been
carefully co-ordinating international support for Syria’s rebel forces. There
are even reports that the Turks have established a shared command centre in
southern Turkey which is supervising the transfer of arms, supplies and
volunteers across the Syrian border to the rebels. In short, the Turks are doing
everything in their power to achieve regime change in Damascus, a position that
is not lost on Mr Assad...