Epstein Secrets

k in a way Turkey has become a victim of its own self- EFTA_R1_00225766 EFTA01840710 image," said Soli Ozel, an international relations expert at Istanbul's Kadir Has University. "For six or seven months, Turkey tried its best to get Assad to change, and the allies waited for Turkey to deliver." Prim

ant us to do more," he says emphatically. "I think we need to...shake the system...We need to help the opposition more"—and in particular the Free Syrian Army, which is now fighting a civil war against the far- better-armed forces loyal to Assad. When I ask if he thinks a "coalition of the willing" could a

a way to present a compromise, you want to present it as a victory." Like other experts, he added a cautionary note. After an initial meeting in Istanbul last month that served mainly to test if Iran was willing to talk seriously EFTA_R 1_02205126 EFTA02721206 about its nuclear program, the United

an regime openly; since then, Saudi Arabia has been actively supporting the Syrian opposition, including by advocating that the world arm the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the main opposition military force. At first, Turkey attempted to convince Assad to reform. Last summer, believing those efforts were at a

urks and Kurds) are vague, considering also that there are at least a million mixed families, and with Kurds living all around Turkey, including in Istanbul, which harbors the country's largest Kurdish population. Besides, while there obviously are Kurds who would happily die for the PKK, there are also

the future stability and territorial integrity of Syria. EFTA00713329 With its long-standing support to the Syrian National Council and the Free Syrian Army, Ankara hopes to have gained the leverage to influence the behavior of the future leadership in the post-Assad era. But now harder choices await Tu

he Syria-Iraq frontier. The silence of President Obama on the matter of Syria reveals the general retreat of American power in the Middle East. In Istanbul some days ago, a Turkish intellectual and political writer put the matter starkly to me: We don't think and talk much about America these days, he

ppling with right now is how to coordinate an increasingly armed opposition. The council says it supports the defensive use of weapons. But exiled Syrian Army officers who formed the Free Syrian Army, based in Turkey, have stayed aloof from the council, and even they do not really control the many local m