Turkey’s outsize ambitions in Syria lie in shreds as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad press on to assert control over the rebel strongholds that remain in Aleppo. Ankara's long-running support for the rebels in the war-ravaged city has seemingly been reduced to appeals from Turkish rebel sympathizers on Twitter, with #HaleplcinAyaktayiz, “We Are Mobilized for Aleppo,” trending on the social media site.

The drama in Aleppo, a city seen as key to a rebel victory against Assad, unfolded as Turkey’s prime minister, Binali Yildirim, held talks Dec. 6 in Russia with his counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, to restore trade and other links that crumbled when Turkey downed a Russian jet over the Syrian border in November 2015.

A critical piece of the Turkey-Russia reset is what to do about Ankara's rebel proxies. The latest developments in Aleppo suggest that some kind of understanding has been reached, with Turkey reportedly mediating on behalf of the rebels and their families for their withdrawal to Idlib.

Ankara is in a hurry because of its paranoia over the Syrian Kurdish statelet it sees emerging along its border. It is desperate to stop the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) from physically linking all the cantons under its control. This, in turn, means preventing the YPG from taking the town of al-Bab from the Islamic State and also striking a deal with Russia, and by extension with the Assad regime, presumably at the Syrian Kurds’ expense.