Turkey's incursion into Syria will backfire on Ankara, Analyst says

Press TV has interviewed Redwan Rizk, a political commentator from Beirut, about the Turkish forces' incursion into the Syrian territory.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Please offer us more insight on the recent Turkish ground incursion into Syria.

Rizk: Well,... Turkey now is now getting involved directly and out in the open. We know that Turkey has been involved since [the beginning of] the crisis in Syria but now it's taking another face and this is very dangerous, because that could lead to widen the war in the region. It’s clear that they’re having a bit of conflict of interest with the United States because as we know the United States of America is just creating a new state of Kurds in Syria and Iraq and it's backing up these forces. And what's being changing on the ground proves that the Americans are the main supporters of this project in Syria and elsewhere. And as we know also that Israel is deeply involved in this crisis and some even Israeli advisers are present on the battleground in Syria and Iraq.

So, from my point of view, the involvement of the Turks is not going to stop the project now of the Americans and the main targets of the Kurds’ forces. They are trying to stretch the canton, they try to search the state and they are trying to open a corridor connected with the Kurds in Iraq and also cleansing the areas out of Arab ethnic groups under the command or under the control of the Kurds. The situation now is reaching a very dangerous point and that could lead to main wars among nations because this is another invasion by the Turks into the Syrian territories.

Hopefully the Turks will understand that they cannot fight the Americans now in Syria and they must understand that their conflict of interest must take Turkey to reconsider the whole position or the situation of the Turkish government. They must understand that they have to deal with the president or the main government in Damascus, Bashar al-Assad, and if they can do so they must make a big turn in their policies in the region and some sort of understanding with the government in Damascus that could lead for the Syrians and the Turks, even though that will take a very big step from President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan.

This will protect Turkey from the fire that they are backing up in the Syrian territories and against the Turk. This will create a very dangerous situation inside Turkey itself as we know that the main supporters and the groups of Kurds are based in inside Turkey and the number of population of Kurds inside Turkey is huge. We are talking here about millions of people who support the creation of a Kurdish state in Iraq and Syria.

So, the Turks now are paying off for the bad policies that were acted by the Turkish government since the beginning of the crisis in Syria and the fire that they are now trying to keep it out of their territories or their borders. Now I believe that this situation now will create another matter that this fire could reach the Turkish house itself.

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