Amid reports out of the Russian Defense Ministry that their Turkish counterparts had proposed a “joint working group” on Syria to try to reduce tensions along the ISIS-Turkey border, Turkish officials are also issuing public statements warning that the ongoing Russian strikes on ISIS imperil Russo-Turkish relations.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted that Russia’s airstrikes have “deeply undercut” his nation’s goals in the ongoing Syrian Civil War, and warned that long-standing cooperation between Turkey and Russia would be a major loss for Russia if they continued.
While a lot of the specific comments out of Turkey have centered on a pair of brief incursions into Turkish airspace by Russian warplanes, which Russia insists were an accident related to changing weather conditions in the area, Turkey has long expressed disquiet whenever anyone’s airstrikes, including the US, seem poised to start undermining ISIS at the expense of gains by the Kurdish factions in northern Syria, and that’s doubtless an issue here as well.
Turkish officials have threatened to open fire on Russian warplanes if they cross the border again, and while such a move appears to be hugely risky, with the possibility of starting a major regional, if not global, conflict, analysts say that Erdogan wants to appear strong going into upcoming elections, and may be willing to take that risk.
What this means for the joint working group is unclear, but may reflect a split between Turkish defense policy officials and the political leadership.
Yeh right, like Turkish Jets would bomb Kurdish people and Russian would continue bombing ISIS, which is the reason for Erdogan regime not liking the way things been bombed. When and if the leader of isisi captured, Erdogan have a lot of explaining to do.
Oh, shut up Tayyip, go build yourself another palace or something, before you get smacked.
Sounds like Turkey is using ISIS for their own purposes. Isn't that counter-productive to the stated US/NATO goals of defeating ISIS?
Yes, but the deep, dark secret that not even the internet will tell you is that ISIS cannot be defeated. That's the lesson the French learned in Indo-China and Algeria, that the US learned in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq and that the Soviet Union learned in Afghanistan. Putin hasn't learned it yet and that will be his undoing. So everybody is just sitting back and letting little Vlad shoot himself in the foot (yet again!).
The only goal of the US has been to overthrow Assad, let's face it.
The proposal most likely came from the Russians. They are desperate to get overfly rights from Turkey. Since the Turks know that, they can effectively force Putin to accept their terms unconditionally or abandon overfly rights altogether.
It is the US that bombs ISIS, and does it from a Turkish base.
Russia says it is bombing ISIS, but it is only a few token strikes against hundreds by the US, 7,000 in Syria to date.
If Turkey were concerned to protect ISIS from bombing, it would not be a concern with the Russians.
Turkey is upset with the Russians, but because Turkey is still demanding Assad go, and Russia is stepping up defense of him — against al Qaeda, not ISIS.