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Ankara’s Syria Policy A Source of Instability

Turkey’s Syria policy neglects the security of its citizens and borders.
Search and rescue officers work at a damaged building at the site of blast in the town of Reyhanli in Hatay province, near the Turkish-Syrian border, May 13, 2013. Syria's information minister has blamed Turkey's government for deadly car bombings near the Syrian border and branded Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan a "murderer", state-run Russian TV company RT reported on Monday. It said he repeated a denial of Syrian involvement in car bombings that killed 46 people on Saturday in the Turkish border town of Re
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The decision in August 2011 by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu that Turkey would like to see Syrian President Bashar Assad brought down and replaced by the Muslim Brotherhood was not prompted by a vital exigency related to Turkey’s stability and security, but rather was a function of  ideological preference.

There was no rational reason that forced the Turkish government to assume the task of toppling Assad for not heeding Turkey’s advice and oppressing his opposition with unwarranted violence.  There is no international accord that has assigned Turkey as a guarantor of Syrian well being.

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