Erdogan’s Syria policy under scrutiny
An article by Seymour Hersh is putting the spotlight on Turkey’s alleged support for the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra fighting the Syrian government.
![TURKEY-ELECTION/ Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan prepares to leave a polling station during the municipal elections in Istanbul March 30, 2014. Erdogan looks set to win Sunday's municipal elections that have become a crisis referendum on his 10-year rule as he tries to ward off graft allegations and stem a stream of damaging security leaks. REUTERS/Murad Sezer (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS) - RTR3J6VI](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2014/04/RTR3J6VI.jpg/RTR3J6VI.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=lrolaLur)
If the article hadn't had a Seymour Hersh byline, it wouldn’t have dropped like a bomb in Turkey, despite all the upheaval and polarization there over Syria.
“The Red Line and the Rat Line,” published in the London Review of Books, alleges that the source of the sarin gas used against the Ghouta suburb of Damascus on Aug. 21, 2013, was Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to the piece, Erdogan arranged supplies of the gas to jihadist groups to create the impression that the gas was used by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and to goad US President Barack Obama into military intervention in Syria.