Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to the expert, is fully aware of the fact that not a single Ankara's ally, including Washington, will back the AKP's initiative. Moscow's counterterrorism operation in Syria is also limiting Turkey's capabilities.
"It appears that Turkey will try to avoid launching a direct ground operation in Syria. Like other players, Ankara will consider other options of waging a war through proxies," he wrote.
Ankara has been indirectly involved in the deadly Syrian conflict for years. Like other regional and outside stakeholders, it has provided assistance to radical groups, which are trying to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad and establish an Islamic caliphate in Syria.
Ankara sees the Kurds in Turkey and elsewhere as the key threat to its stability and security. It has carried out a military operation against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and any other group the AKP believes are affiliated with it since mid-2015 after a two-year-long ceasefire between Turkish authorities and the PKK collapsed. The operation has been largely condemned as a humanitarian catastrophe.
Both the PYD and the YPG have denied that they were involved in the bombing.
Moreover, the Turkish army has been shelling the YPG in Syria since February 13 after they drove Islamic militia from an air base and village close to the Turkish border, justifying it as a retaliatory measure. The YPG is largely considered to be one of the most efficient forces capable of tackling Daesh and other extremists groups in Syria.
