It's unclear how enthusiastic the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan is over the Geneva II talks on Syria, given that these talks effectively legitimize the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Ankara continues to insist that this regime has lost all legitimacy. Both Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu are saying that they support these talks, of course, and expressing hope that it bears results.

It was nevertheless telling to see Erdogan immediately latch onto the dreadful photographs, which were revealed just before Geneva II kicked off, and which reportedly show the scale of the atrocities committed by the Assad regime. Erdogan insists that these images should be enough to spur the international community to action.

By that, he means action designed to bring down Assad and his regime, a topic that has been his hobbyhorse from the start of the Syrian crisis. That, however, is clearly not in the cards as the international focus turns to a political settlement for Syria based on negotiations between the regime and the opposition.

The basic truth for Erdogan today is that circumstance has left Turkey sitting at the same table with a regime it despises and wants toppled. The animosity between the sides was also reflected in the speeches of Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem and Davutoglu during the opening session of Geneva II in Montreux on Jan 22.