{"id":1923,"date":"2017-04-10T16:34:47","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T16:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/?p=1923"},"modified":"2017-04-10T16:34:47","modified_gmt":"2017-04-10T16:34:47","slug":"turkey-renews-call-for-syria-no-fly-zones-following-insufficient-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/2017\/04\/10\/turkey-renews-call-for-syria-no-fly-zones-following-insufficient-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"TURKEY RENEWS CALL FOR SYRIA NO-FLY ZONES FOLLOWING \u201cINSUFFICIENT\u201d STRIKE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sourced : Arab News<\/p>\n

By Menekse Tokyay<\/p>\n

Turkey has welcomed a US missile strike on Syria\u2019s Shayrat Airbase but called the move insufficient, renewing its call for no-fly and safe zones in the war-torn country.<\/p>\n

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Washington\u2019s move was positive but that more needs to be done to tackle the situation in Syria.<\/p>\n

During an inauguration ceremony in the southern province of Hatay, Erdogan said: \u201cI don\u2019t see this as sufficient although it is a tangible and positive move against the war crimes of Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think that the latest developments clearly justified Turkey\u2019s stance on creating terror-free safe zones in Syria,\u201d he added. \u201cTime has come to take serious and result-oriented steps to protect Syrian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu confirmed that Turkey, which is part of the US-led coalition fighting Daesh, was informed about the US strike beforehand.<\/p>\n

He told reporters in Antalya that creating safe zones for civilians in Syria has now become more important than ever.<\/p>\n

Ibrahim Kalin, Turkey\u2019s presidential spokesman, said that chemical attacks targeting civilians could not \u201cgo unpunished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kalin reiterated the need to implement a no-fly and safe zones in Syria urgently to avoid similar massacres like the one following the apparent chemical attack in Idlib province. Some victims of that attack were treated in Turkey.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s Defense Minister Fikri Isik also welcomed the US strikes by saying that \u201cit is important that Mr. Trump kept his promise and staged the operation.\u201d He called for \u201csolidarity\u201d in the international community on the issue.<\/p>\n

Turkey recently ended its Euphrates Shield military operation it launched in August to fight Daesh in Syria, while Erdogan announced that the country is planning new operations this spring.<\/p>\n

Turkey also participated in the Astana cease-fire negotiations with the Syrian government, along with Russia.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s strategic support<\/strong><\/p>\n

Experts told Arab News that the US strike seems to be a cosmetic one, and is unlikely to escalate further. However, in the case of an escalation, the US would surely need to use Turkey\u2019s strategic southern airbase of Incirlik as a staging area for major incursions into Syria.<\/p>\n

Ahmet Han, international relations professor at Istanbul\u2019s Kadir Has University, said Turkey will now have to follow a more reactive policy on Syria that will be mainly focused on the preferences of Russia and the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe priorities of Turkey and Russia are clearly divergent on the Syria issue. Turkey may search for a common understanding with the US, but the latter does not seem to transform its position in favor of Turkey,\u201d Han told Arab News.<\/p>\n

Han also noted that Ankara\u2019s calls for a no-fly zone in Syria would probably remain unanswered. He added: \u201cWhenever parties that are able to enforce such a measure in Syrian quagmire refer to a \u2018no-fly zone\u2019, what they mean by the concept seems to involve vast differences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Metin Gurcan, an ex-military officer and security analyst at the Istanbul Policy Center, said it is still too early to talk about any implications regarding Ankara\u2019s calls for a no-fly zone in Syria.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe east of the Euphrates is under the US zone of influence, while Russia thinks that the west part of it is under its influence in terms of airspace dominance; and this strike strengthened the profile of the US for the first time in the western part of the Euphrates,\u201d Gurcan told Arab News.<\/p>\n

However, according to Gurcan, Ankara unnecessarily makes hasty statements against this US-Russia imbroglio about northern Syria.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnkara looks sandwiched between Trump and Putin in its Syria policy, and its policy stances, which are changing each week, create unpredictability and a confidence problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to get support for its demands for a no-fly zone, Turkey should stick to its principles while taking Russia as a counterpart for a no-fly zone in the western Euphrates, and the US for the eastern part.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Choice over Russia<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Gurcan, Ankara will be influenced the most, especially after Russia announced that it would reduce military cooperation with the US, and Ankara will have to make a choice.<\/p>\n

In this regard, Cavusoglu told reporters on April 7 that Turkey has initiated contacts with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who already paid a strategic visit to Ankara to discuss possible cooperation avenues with Turkey against Daesh.<\/p>\n

Gurcan also noted that from now on Turkey should not respond militarily in the region around the Euphrates, as neither the US nor Russia would tolerate this when designing their own regional plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreating de facto micro realities to gain more leverage at a diplomatic level in Syria is now over for Ankara,\u201d Gurcan said.<\/p>\n

Oytun Orhan, a researcher on Syria at Ankara-based think-tank Orsam, said the latest US attack might create a suitable environment for cooperation over safe zones in Syria.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the problem is that it is too hard for both to unite on where to establish these safe zones. Turkey will oppose to establish a safe zone in YPG (Kurdish People\u2019s Protection Units) areas, which will consolidate their entity,\u201d Orhan told Arab News.<\/p>\n

According to Orhan, a Turkish military response in Syria would totally depend on possible Turkey-US cooperation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this latest attack paves the way for a US-Turkey cooperation, then we could expect that the country may extend its military operations in Syria, including Manbij, Afrin and Idlib,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sourced : Arab News By Menekse Tokyay Turkey has welcomed a US missile strike on Syria\u2019s Shayrat Airbase but called the move insufficient, renewing its call for no-fly and safe zones in the war-torn country. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Washington\u2019s move was positive but that more needs to be done to tackle the situation… Continue reading TURKEY RENEWS CALL FOR SYRIA NO-FLY ZONES FOLLOWING \u201cINSUFFICIENT\u201d STRIKE<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1441,608,15,90,641],"class_list":["post-1923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conflict","tag-no-fly-zone","tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","tag-syria","tag-turkey","tag-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1924,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1923\/revisions\/1924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}