I n line with Turkey’s military actions against the Kurds in Syria, Ankara strives to attack political and diplomatic camps as well. The main concern is not only that Erdogan tries to legally justify these military actions, which is not necessary in fact: international players give their silent consent to the current Syrian developments. It seems that some agreement has been reached on this issue. In fact, Erdogan intends to get more from international community than only creating a security zone on Turkish-Syrian border.

Ankara has high expectations both from Washington and from Brussels. In response to the EU condemning position related to the military operations in Syria, Erdogan threatened to open borders to Europe for millions of Syrian refugees [1],[2].

On October 12, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he suspended all weapon supplies to Turkey [3]. On the same day German Foreign Minister Heiko Mass made a statement on suspending arms exports to Turkey as well [4]. On October 13, during Erdogan - Angela telephone conversation on Turkey’s initiative, the German Chancellor called on Ankara for an immediate end of Turkish military operations in Syria [5].

The EU foreign ministers discuss the issue on sanctions against Turkey [6]. Before that the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg arrived in Turkey and met with President Erdogan on October 11 [7].

Source https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news

After the Stoltenberg-Chavushoglu meeting, the Secretary General mentioned at a press conference: “I have a serious concerns about the risk of further destabilizing the region and escalating tensions. Though Turkey has legitimate security concerns, we expect Turkey to act with restraint” [8].

The Secretary General of the alliance’s visit to Turkey is considered symbolic against the backdrop of military actions in Syria, and it seems like that the alliance expresses its support to Ankara.

---

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NCX1r1GBaA

[2] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/10/

[3] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria

[4] https://www.dw.com/en/german-government

[5] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles

[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho9YOfrzR4I

[7] https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_169576.htm

[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrbIMzv3ny8