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Turkey must select between arming, fighting terrorists: Analyst

Friday, 23 December 2016 11:14 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 23 December 2016 11:15 AM ]

An AP file photo of a Turkish fighter jet

Turkey’s airstrikes in northern Syria have left 88 civilians dead over the past 24 hours as Ankara steps up its military campaign against what it claims Daesh positions there. On Thursday, Turkey suffered the biggest loss so far of its military campaign in Syria after over a dozen of its soldiers were reportedly killed by Daesh terrorists. Daesh has released a video of burning two Turkish soldiers alive, prompting Ankara to limit access to online social media.

James O'Neill, a geopolitical analyst from Brisbane, told Press TV that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan should make up his mind to go after terrorist groups or support them.

“If Mr. Erdogan is serious in what he’s saying about fighting the terrorists, he’s got to stop financing them, he’s got to stop arming them and he’s got to stop providing them with the ability to move in his country and Syria,” O’Neill said on Friday.

“On the one hand, they (Turkish authorities) are allegedly fighting ISIS (Daesh). On the other hand, they are saying from time to time they want to overthrow [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad’s government in Damascus and other times they are doing deals with the Russians in order to facilitate other changes.”

O’Neill said Erdogan is trying to keep several wars in the region at the same time.

“Turkey is juggling a different theater of wars in the same time and it’s not an easy position to be in,” he said.

“Turkey has to make up its mind exactly about what it wants to achieve in the Middle East. It cannot keep on pursuing policies that are fundamentally contradictory,” the analyst added.

Elsewhere, he said, while Turkey is a member of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Ankara is also a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The Turks, O'Neill said, are “under enormous pressure from America not to cooperate with China and Syria.”

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