During the last year, the Syrian Kurds and their militia forces have been effectively engaged in combat against Daesh. They managed to take control over a half of the territories along the Syrian-Turkish border and cut off the militants’ supplies line.
The Kurdish forces have been advancing in all directions, sealing off northern Syria from Turkey in the swath of territory between the Tigris and Euphrates.
However, Ankara has already designated its "red line", saying that there should be no Kurdish troops crossing west of the Euphrates River. Omar Sheikhmous, a veteran Syrian Kurdish leader, called for Kurds to exaggerate their own strength and keep in mind the fact that Erdogan is "unpredictable," according to the article.
Turkey could have taken the failure as an accomplished fact and admitted that it would be difficult for it to send troops to northern Syria in the face of strong objections from the US and Russia. But, if the alternative is "failure and humiliation," then Ankara may start an intervention, the author wrote.
"Without Erdogan as leader, I would say the Turks would not intervene militarily [in northern Syria], but, since he is, I think they will do so," Gerard Challiand, the French expert on irregular warfare and the politics of the Middle East, was quoted as saying by The Independent.
Meanwhile, some Kurdish leaders said if Ankara was going to launch intervention it would have happened before a Russian bomber was shot down in Syria, the article read.
As for now, the government forces are gaining ground in Syria, backed by Russia, Iran and Lebanon while Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey are losing.
Turkey is the last regional power which could be a game-changer, with open intervention. "But, barring this, the conflict has become so internationalized that only the US and Russia are capable of bringing it to an end," the author concluded.
