Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was ready, on Wednesday, February 12, to strike at the forces of the Damascus regime " anywhere " if Turkey’s positions in the Idlib region are attacked again. The leader was speaking to deputies from his Justice and Development Party (AKP, Islamic-Conservative), gathered in Ankara.
Bashar Al-Assad’s troop offensive on Idlib, the last pocket of the Turkish-backed Syrian rebellion, puts Erdogan on the brink. Criticized by the Kemalist opposition on the imperfection of its policy in Syria, incited by its ultranationalist ally Devlet Bahçeli to wear iron "To Damascus" and to "Overthrow the tyrant", Recep Tayyip Erdogan must show that he is ready to stand up to the whole world. It is in this role that his supporters prefer him.
To show his determination, the Turkish president, who is also the commander-in-chief of the army, has dispatched reinforcements to Idlib in recent days. Commandos and military equipment, tanks, troop carriers, howitzers and multiple rocket launchers crossed the border.
Russia reigns supreme in the Syrian skies
Erdogan said planes and helicopters bombing civilians "Will no longer be able to carry out their actions quietly as before". On Tuesday, a Syrian army helicopter was shot down by a rocket hit southeast of the besieged city.
Despite everything, its means are limited. Ready to do "All that is necessary, on earth and in the air, without hesitation or procrastination" to oust the Damascus regime, he is paralyzed by the fact that airspace escapes him. Russia reigns supreme, among other things thanks to its S-400 air defense systems, the very ones that so impressed Erdogan that he acquired them despite their incompatibility with NATO equipment , of which his country is the eastern pillar.
In Idlib, Ankara’s army is in bad shape. Fourteen soldiers were killed in a week and seven Turkish outposts – representing hundreds of men and important military equipment – were surrounded by Bashar Al-Assad's forces and are now cut off from their headquarters.
These attacks could not have taken place without Moscow’s assault, Erdogan knows. Hence his resentment towards his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, with whom he thought he had a privileged relationship. For the first time on Wednesday, he criticized Russia, accused "To commit massacres and to shed blood" in Idlib, home to 3.5 million people, many of whom have been displaced by the conflict.
