Source: BBC World News
In a recent interview on the BBC’s World News Today, Carnegie’s Sinan Ülgen commented on Turkey’s role in the evolving situation in Syria. Highlighting the dismay in Ankara at the vetoing of a United Nations Security Council resolution on Syria, Ülgen stressed that the overriding concern for Turkish policy makers is to prevent the country’s implosion and descent into civil war. As such, he continued, Ankara has opted for a radical departure from its established foreign policy by promoting the idea of regime change in Damascus and lending overt support to the Assad regime’s main opponents, the Syrian National Council and Free Syrian Army. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s February visit to Washington, Ülgen concluded, could provide an opportunity for Turkey and the United States to re-assess and strengthen support to the opposition.