Turkey fueling Syria crisis with West green light: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Mike Harris, an editor with the Veterans Today from Oregon, about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in northern Syria and the role of foreign players in the conflict there.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Looking at the deteriorating situation in northern Syria, what do you think is behind this terrorist infighting that is taking place and also trapping many many civilians in the process?

Harris: I think the trapping of the civilians is really an effort on the part of Daesh and other terrorist groups to use these civilians as human shields to use them as hostages. The terrorists are aware that their protection is weakening. They’ve been protected by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel and of course elements of the US. Their protection’s weakening and they’re afraid. They’re going to be wiped out, which is what needs to happen to them. So, they’re looking to take as many civilian hostages as they can in order to leverage them for free passage out of the country into Turkey probably.

Press TV: And with the situation, do you see Turkey because Turkey obviously has been very involved in supporting and these terrorists now with this situation they’re right on the border with Turkey, what is it going to take actually for us to see a change in Ankara in the Middle of the situation in Syria?

Harris: We need a regime change in Ankara. Erdogan has stepped outside all the bounds of civilized behavior. He’s committing acts of aggression and piracy against neighboring countries not just Syria but other countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan. He’s responsible for that unrest as well. This man needs to be removed and a more humanitarian regime needs to be installed in Turkey. That is the bottom line. There is no other compromise. The damage that this man has done to Europe by funneling the millions of refugees into the European homelands there has also been a disaster. This has been extreme hardship on the Europeans. Then this guy is loose cannon, he’s dangerous, he needs to be removed immediately.

Press TV: If we look at the whole situation, can we totally blame Erdogan for the situation in Syria? Where do these Western countries play now? We have some of the Western European countries; we have the United States, sometimes pointing the finger at Erdogan. Are they really against him or for him or what is happening in the mix?

Harris: I think they have been for him since the get-go. I think that Erdogan wouldn’t have done what he has been doing without a clear green light from the Western powers and the US in particular. I don’t think he’s bold enough or brash enough to do this without US consent. And so, this is a diplomatic failure on the part of the US. They made a plague to destabilize the region. They made a plague to take down the Assad regime in Syria. You look at the domino effect would have been in Syria, then Iran, then Russia.

I think that these countries, who are the targets really, have figured out what the US’ game plan is and have done a remarkable job. You’re turning back to US’ plan, to defeating the US’ plan and all of their allies in the region like I said Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel. Their plan has failed and it continues to fail and I’ve said many many times that the US is currently on the wrong side of the history on this type of maneuver. This is a direct result of the US foreign policy being hijacked by this pro-Israeli neocon group that seems to run State Department these days and has for the last decade or so.

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