Istanbul tries to decide for Syrian destiny without Syrians
Ankara has real prospects for rapprochement with official Damascus in resolving the armed conflict, and resolving the Idlib issue, in particular.
This was written by international journalist Abbas Juma on his blog, commenting on the International Conference on Syria, which was held in Istanbul.
He stressed that the event was attended by many experts, politicians and journalists. There are calls for the fight against terrorism, as well as fears that the intensification of hostilities in Idlib will lead to a wave of refugees in Turkey.
At the same time, Juma drew attention to the fact that there were practically no Syrians at the conference:
“Only one activist from Syria came to speak on behalf of the Ba’ath and still cannot get out of the web of microphones – the journalists are literally tearing the poor fellow to pieces”, – he said.
“On the other hand, it is possible that the ruling party (AKP) uses the past conference as a platform to begin rapprochement with Damascus. In any case, such a trend has been outlined. And if this happens, then the significance of this event is simply colossal”, – he stated.