EU.Turkey

PEPE ESCOBAR—What’s fascinating is that Ankara under Erdogan always seems to be exhibiting a sort of “devil may care” attitude.

Take the seemingly insoluble situation in the Idlib cauldron in northwest Syria. Jabhat al-Nusra – a.k.a. al-Qaeda in Syria – honchos are now involved in “secret” negotiations with Turkish-backed armed gangs, such as Ahrar al-Sharqiya, right in front of Turkish officials. The objective: to boost the number of jihadis concentrated in certain key areas. The bottom line: a large number of these will come from Jabhat al-Nusra.

MOA—The U.S. part in the plan was to provide the media and “global opinion” cover for the insurgency. To that purpose it used the instruments from its “color revolution” tool box. “Citizen journalists” were recruited, trained and provided with the video and communication equipment needed for media propagandizing. Others were trained in organizing “peaceful civil demonstrations”. The Saudis took care of the darker part of the plan. They financed and armed rebel groups, often related to the exiled Muslim Brotherhood, which had the task to instigate a wider insurgency by taking on government forces as well as the peaceful demonstrators.

Some people expressed their concern that perhaps Putin was a little reckless in agreeing to supply Turkey with S-400s. At the time, I confidently predicted that those advanced air defence systems would never be delivered to Turkey. The Turkish nuclear power plants may be built, but it won’t be by Russian companies. The “Turkstream” gas pipeline will be shelved. Turkey will not lose out by this second U-Turn; it will be rewarded with concessions that will be at the expense of Greece and Cyprus and…. Syria.

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Dispatches from STEPHEN LENDMAN Both countries have irreconcilable differences on Syria. Allied…