Why is Jabhat al-Nusra no longer useful to Turkey?
The Turkish government may be waking up to its failed Syria policies.
Reluctantly perhaps, given the time it took it to do so, Turkey on June 3 finally designated al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra a terrorist organization. The decision was seen as further proof of Turkey’s failed Syria policy, which has left the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan little choice but to fall in line with the United States with regard to radical groups fighting in that country.
The decision to ban Jabhat al-Nusra also comes tellingly less than a week after President Barack Obama announced that aid to Turkey, as well as Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, would be increased so that they can “confront terrorists working across Syria’s borders.”
During his May 28 speech to graduating West Point cadets, Obama also said he would work with Congress to “ramp up support for those in the Syrian opposition who offer the best alternative to terrorists and brutal dictators.”
Despite denials by the Erdogan government, Ankara has for some time now been suspected by the West, and openly accused by the opposition in Turkey, of supporting Jabhat al-Nusra and other such groups in Syria.
