From the start of the Syrian Civil War, Western nations have been more or less universally agreed on one point, that Syrian President Bashar Assad has to go. Four years in that mantra is still being repeated, but with a lot more caveats than it used to.
The latest round of comments from Western officials could be summed up as “Bashar Assad has to go, but,” with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a former Assad ally turned outspoken Assad opponent, saying that the “process” by which Assad is eventually removed from power could give Assad a role, even though “nobody envisages a future” where he isn’t gone eventually.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel similarly insisted any talks about Syria should realistically include Assad, saying the West has to speak with all actors in the region if they want to accomplish anything. That Merkel didn’t include the requisite number of “Assad must go” comments in her speech sparked some backlash, with suggestions that any talks involving Assad would mean no rebels would participate.
Which is true primarily because the Western nations that have been backing those rebels keep telling them not to participate. The Russian government has tried to get such “unity transitional government” talks going more than a few times, and the lip service initially given by everyone is scrapped pretty quickly when rebels who already agreed to participate suddenly change their tune after comments from some official in the US-led coalition.
So long as the US remains on the outside looking in on this realization that their rebel allies are getting smaller and smaller, it’s probably going to keep them out of any efforts to help the similarly faltering Assad government fight the groups that are actually growing, primarily ISIS. By the time everyone gets in board, however, it may be too late to matter, and ISIS will be so much larger than everyone else in the country that no amount of unity will be competition for them.
As in Ukraine so in Syria. Now we're being told that the US and its allies are split and St. Vlad the Peacemaker is just going to have to solve the problem for them. The two conflicts have merged into one.
There is no merger, except in the frustrated plans for regime change among US hawks.
We should remember that once before, Erdogan had Turkey's army up to the Syrian border with threats of invasion. Then he made a deal with Assad that lasted for a decade. The Turkish army stood down. The victims of the deal were the Kurds, whom Assad gave up.
That is well into happening again. That what happened once could happen again is not a radical idea.
Not once, but always, "somebody" is having an interest in exploiting the Kurdish nations with an objective to be the agent of instability. That "somebody" always armed and financed Kurdish militants, and that their target was predominantly Turkey — even though, occasionally, the separatism fever affected Kurds in Iraq, Iran or Syria. And, behold, the separatist fever was always induced by the supply of arms, money and political enticements/promises of future nirvana, if they only …
But let us not forget — and it is easy in this Murdochian world of loud, vulgar and arrogant media — that just before the "Arab Spring" in Syria, Turkey, Syria and Lebanon established a visa-free regime for business travelers and commercial traffic. Since Russia and Turkey already had such an agreement, what was shaping was not to the liking of neocons. Add to that all three initiatives that Erdogan during his tenure as prime minister started in order to come to terms with Kurdish community — and we should get the picture that "somebody" clearly did not like the rapprochement One of those attempts included the amnesty to the fighters, which allowed thousands of them to come out of the mountains and back home. But — predictably as the sun rises in the east — there was an attack on Turkish soldiers by PKK, and the public turned vehemently against the amnesty. Other attempts ended the same way. "Somebody" always insures that issues cannot be settled locally or regionally without the "role" for the world's only superpower that is to arbitrage all relationships on earth. Remember the case of Erdogan's move to settle the issue with Armenia. A commission was established to jointly look at the history, and its implications. But while the commission mulled the history, borders were to be opened, and trade and investments flowing both ways. Behold, France decided to recognize the Armenian genocide, and that insured that Turkish public had little taste for continued rapprochement. As low key as it was, it was not possible to continue, as it raised the Armenian (especially in West influenced diaspora) to fever pitch the calls for others to recognize genocide. In Turkey, a backlash. Once again, "somebody" did not like the idea of no-problem-with-neighbors that Erdogan pushed for. Kurds would not be the victims if they do not fall for the same old canard — the expectations that the West will eventually force Turkey and others in the region to give them a country. But secessionism, especially armed one, never sits well with ANY country, why would it rate better in Turkey. Kurds in Syria have fallen for this siren song many times, so are Iraqi Kurds or Iranian Kurds. Every time money and arms are flowing into a region, you can bet on them being used by some leaders whose hope's spring is eternal. Before Erdogan, things were simpler. The NATO-run military and that "somebody" had both interest in Kurdish secessionism. It was mighty easy for the generals to run the country that was continuously on the war footing with Kurds.
Kurds have in the meantime, neglected to work with each other in a constructive manner. Instead of being used by foreign powers or local despots to do their bidding and kill their own youth, they could have come up with joint proposals to international organizations, looking into medium-term solutions such as some autonomy, becoming a regional organization with some form of recognition in international arena, and making peace with the local authorities at the same time. Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and work towards unified front on international stage. Even if that was on the level of a soccer league, or neighborhood watch — would have been better to build a unified community, and avoid being used against their own countries — no matter how "horrible, tyrannical, odious, Hitler-like", etc. they might be.