Turkey in Crossfire Over Syria Rebels

Since the beginning of the crisis in Syria, Turkey has taken an active role in moves to topple the regime in its neighboring country. Turkey is not only actively engaged in the Syrian crisis, but it has also become one of the most vocal critics of the Syrian regime. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was the first leader who called on Bashar al-Assad to step down. It is no secret that Turkey was expecting that the Assad regime would not stay much longer and hoped that Turkey would be on the side of the winners when the Syrian regime was gone. Ironically, Turkey took this step on the basis of a new foreign policy initiative of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu which involves “anticipating the future” and intervening before developments get out of control. The Turkish anticipation of Syria’s future became such that Turkey miscalculated the Assad regime’s durability and underestimated Assad’s international support and his position within the country.