Raising more than $10 billion at a conference in London on Thursday was a significant step towards helping countries like Turkey, bearing the brunt of the Syrian refugee exodus. \u00a0It may have been the largest amount ever pledged in a day for a humanitarian crisis; yet even before the meeting had ended, it became clear that aid alone will not bring relief to suffering of Syria.<\/p>\n
Both the earlier peace talks in Geneva and the conference in London have been overtaken by events on the ground.<\/p>\n
The situation in Syria has now reached such a critical juncture that no amount of humanitarian effort can ease the devastation wrought by the five-year long conflict.<\/p>\n
By focusing on prevention of further refugee flow to Europe and offering incentives to host countries in the region to keep them there, the international actors may achieve a short term success in containment. But unless they concentrate their efforts to deliver a sustainable political solution, waves of refugees will continue to come to Europe.<\/p>\n
Turkey, already overwhelmed by the Syrians fleeing the war, is facing the painful consequences of pursuing its unilateral political agenda for Syria, once again.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the London conference, Prime Minister, Ahmet Davuto\u011flu was warning that three hundred thousand people living in Aleppo were about to march to the Turkish border.<\/p>\n
As the Syrian government forces, supported by Russian air power, are advancing on Aleppo, tens of thousands of Syrians have already arrived at Turkey\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n
Receiving yet another wave of refugees is not the only worrying aspect of the deteriorating situation in Syria to affect Turkey.<\/p>\n
Aleppo, the most contested city in Syria is only 50 km away from the Turkish border. A siege and the consequent fall of Aleppo to al-Assad forces will be seen as a major strategic setback and loss of face by Turkey.<\/p>\n
It also brings Turkey-Russia relations, already on the brink for months, to a dangerous boiling point.<\/p>\n
The Russian propaganda machine is already in full swing. Moscow is claiming that Turkey is preparing a military incursion into Syria.<\/p>\n
In turn, Turkey is accusing Russia of committing war crimes and, together with Syrian regime forces, laying a siege of starvation to Aleppo.<\/p>\n
There is no sign of either side de-escalating their rhetoric.<\/p>\n
Russia seems determined to raise the stakes and it is not the first time in recent months, that the Russians are openly provoking Turkey to a hasty response.<\/p>\n
Turkey is denying that it is preparing to invade Syria.<\/p>\n
Launching a ground operation in Syria would have serious and long term ramifications for Turkey. Even the President and the Prime Minister, the architects of many foreign policy blunders in recent years, would do their best to avoid it.<\/p>\n
We can only hope that common sense would prevail both in Ankara and Moscow.<\/p>\n
Syria has become such a poisonous cauldron of political, military and sectarian interests, it is difficult to foresee who might be the next power to stir it further.<\/p>\n
With Turkey\u2019s close ally Saudi Arabia suggesting that a change in the balance of power on the ground in Syria would open up the way to a political settlement and expressing its readiness to send ground troops, it is becoming increasingly hard to remain optimistic.<\/p>\n
There may be much worse to come, not only for millions of Syrian refugees, but for everyone touched by the conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Raising more than $10 billion at a conference in London on Thursday was a significant step towards helping countries like Turkey, bearing the brunt of the Syrian refugee exodus. \u00a0It may have been the largest amount ever pledged in a day for a humanitarian crisis; yet even before the meeting had ended, it became clear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27968"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27968"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27970,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27968\/revisions\/27970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}