War in Syria: The moment has come to press Merkel and Macron on Ukraine
Both Russia and Turkey can take advantage of the situation surrounding the flow of refugees trying to break into the European Union after the intensification of hostilities in the Syrian province of Idlib.
Former DPR Security Council Secretary Alexander Khodakovsky discusses this in his blog, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“There are a lot of discussions today on the topic: was it planned this way, or did they get in and then realize that they overestimated their strength and capabilities? We are talking, as you understand, about Syria. So what is this and what is it for, especially considering that in other areas the Russians, together with the Turks, are patrolling the area under the cover of our helicopters? There are losses - but in a big game how can there be no losses? I don’t know the final plan of this game, but there is already an intermediate result - migrants. Neither Russia nor Turkey will refuse to squeeze Europe in such a specific way. So why don't the two "partners" play out the tension and take advantage of it?
Turkey hasn’t been promoting Europe with money on the topic of refugees for a long time, and Russia has recently accumulated so many reasons to annoy this two-faced Janus that the soul is simply asking for a holiday.
If this assumption is correct, then the frantic attempts of Macron and Merkel to take the position of arbitrators are understandable - the situation may again hit their countries painfully. Yes, sad as it may be, Syrian refugees are a new type of “weapon” with the help of which Europe can be persuaded to make concessions even without war. They give us rubles, and we give them refugees,” says Khodakovsky.
The Turkish Ministry of Internal Affairs reported this morning that the number of refugees who entered the no-man's land near the border with Greece exceeded 130 thousand people. High-ranking EU officials are arriving in Turkey today for negotiations. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday that the EU assistance of 1 billion euros was not sufficient.
However, the situation with refugees can be used by Turkey not only to blackmail the EU, but also with far-reaching geopolitical consequences, suggests military observer Boris Rozhin.
“While analysts focus on the fact that Erdogan wants to change the demographic composition of the northern Syrian territories by resettling Arab refugees there (in order to dilute the Kurdish factor and create a reliable support base there at the expense of loyal Sunni Arabs), in fact the insidious plan is that “in order, under the cover of the Syrian hype, to change the demographic composition of the population on the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea with the aim of subsequently expanding the influence of the neo-Ottoman Empire in Europe, especially in the territories that were part of the empire in the last century,” Rozhin does not exclude.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.