Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusogu issued a statement on Tuesday accusing the US of “stalling” on establishing a safe zone across northeastern Syria, even though the US and Turkey are already conducting joint patrols in the area.
Cavusoglu says that the goal is to push the Syrian Kurds out of the
area, and if the US doesn’t start working with them to make it happen,
Turkey is prepared to unilaterally do so.
Turkey attacking the Syrian Kurds has always been a risk that could
lead to a confrontation with the US. This has left the US resisting a
lot of Turkish plans, or advancing them slowly, while Turkey threatens
to act.
Turkey remains willing to threaten such actions, even knowing the
consequences, and the US seems eager to try to give Turkey the illusion
they are working together, when they plainly are not.
This is all just a dance. Trump wants to use the Kurds to keep a toe in Syria so he has to play tough guy with Erdogan, but he wants the Turks close by in case those wily Kurdish anarchists decide to make another deal with their natural allies in the Alawite run Syrian government. Every American administration likes to be no further than two steps away from f*cking the Kurds over.
Meanwhile, Erdogan knows he can’t afford an all out war with the Kurds (and likely Syria too) but he needs a convenient scapegoat to blame for the Turkish economy going to shit and traditionally the Kurds have been the whipping boy of choice since the Russians stepped up for their Orthodox brethren in Armenia. So he poses like a strong man even while his balls are in a vice.
This isn’t foreign policy, It’s pro-wrestling for the 1%. Only we the (poor) people have to pay for the f*cking tickets