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Turkey seeks to maintain influence in northern Syria: Commentator

Friday, 05 February 2016 2:38 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 05 February 2016 2:37 PM ]

Tanks and Turkish soldiers patrol a street in the Silvan district after clashes between Turkish forces and Kurdish militants in Silvan, November 14, 2015. (AFP photo)

Press TV has interviewed Fred Weir, a journalist and political commentator in Moscow, about the Russian Defense Ministry stating that Russia has serious grounds to suspect Turkey of preparing for a military incursion into Syria.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Do you think it would surprise anyone if Turkey were to genuinely invade Syria considering its track record?

Weir: Well no. A lot of commentators without the benefit of aerial reconnaissance, which the Russians surely have, have been suggesting that Turkey is becoming desperate to maintain the influence it had by proxy groups in northern Syria, and that the last card it may have to play in terms of creating that zone, it is long advocated in northern Syria, is to actually invade with troops.

Now the Russians say that the Turks cancelled an overflight, which is Russia’s right under the Open Skies Treaty, and that they are doing so with that overflight, the plan, which all countries do this, NATO overflies Russia under the same treaty, Turkish reconnaissance flights fly over Russia under the same treaty, so it is a rather serious matter if Turkey cancelled that scheduled Russian flight.

The Russians say that this is their main piece of evidence that the Turks do in fact have something to hide, that they are preparing to invade the northern part of Syria.

Press TV: And of course then there is the issue of the Russian warplane if it did or did not violate Turkish air space but paraphrasing what Russia is saying, it is essentially saying that this is a distraction, that Turkey is trying to distract everyone from what it itself is doing, isn’t it?

Weir: Well it is a complicated situation and all the marbles have been moved around in the past four months since Russia intervened there; and given the fact that the president of Turkey is a somewhat unpredictable character and that the Turkish game plan in Syria is unraveling, not just the matter of their proxy rebels in northern Syria, it is that the Syrian Kurds are moving, moving west and taking territory and threatening to completely seal off the Turkish-Syrian border, that the options facing the Turks now are very, very few and actual intervention, military, on the ground intervention may be the last play they have.

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