Turkey faces uphill battle to improve image after Syria operation
The Turkish president is maintaining his hard line, which indicates that Ankara’s ties with the international community will remain strained.
The cost of Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring in northeastern Syria against the People's Protection Units (YPG) is growing fast for Ankara.
The operation secured political points for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at home, where the mood is increasingly nationalistic, and achieved some of Turkey’s objectives east of the Euphrates River. On aggregate, though, Turkey’s gains could be minor when compared to the unprecedented international isolation it now faces.
Ordering the operation against the US-backed Kurdish YPG, which Turkey considers a terrorist organization, may turn out to be the easy part. Managing the political and economic fallout will likely prove more difficult.
The US House of Representatives has already passed a bipartisan bill that threatens Turkey with economic, political and military sanctions, while the Senate is drafting similar bills.
