Neither Turkey nor Syria want a war, but both sides don’t want to appear to back down and there are four factors pushing them towards a conflict, according to the Atlantic’s Robert Wright.
Here’s a summary of his four points
- Turkey could decide that war is preferable to the alternatives of an influx of more refugees and Kurds using the ongoing civil war to carve out an autonomous region in Syria.
- A Turkish-Syrian war could draw the US into the conflict making such a move more attractive to some influential backers of American intervention.
- Syria will continue attacking the Turkish border to stop the supply of weapons to rebels. “The Syrian regime is fighting for its life, and along the Turkish-Syrian border lies the lifeline of its enemy” Wright says.
- In a way Turkey is already at war with the Syrian regime by supplying weapons to rebels.
