Russia Rescues Turkey From Syrian Chemical Threat
The accord to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons has marginalized Ankara’s Syria policy while removing the threat against Turkey.
Ankara is not satisfied with the US-Russia accord formulated to eliminate the Syrian Baath regime's chemical weapons. Ankara’s disappointment with the accord — reached on Sept. 14 in Geneva between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart John Kerry — was expressed in a statement made by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu that same day.
"Massacres in Syria must be stopped immediately. Those responsible for the chemical weapons attack must be punished. … Of course elimination of chemical weapons in any country is a positive development. We will all be happy with that, but this should not be interpreted as allowing massacres of people without a chemical attack and should not open the way to ignore the responsibilities of those who massacred 100,000 people until now," said Davutoglu.
Ankara was hoping that, after the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack, a Western military strike under US leadership would go beyond punishing the Baath regime and deterring it from ever using chemical weapons again, but also be a comprehensive operation that would topple the Damascus regime. The picture that emerged was a case of dissatisfaction and disgruntlement.
First of all, with the Russian initiative, the Baath regime has escaped punishment for killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, with chemical weapons.
