This is an update to a story we told you about yesterday. On July 5, Israel launched another strike against advanced weapons in Syria. Now Russia Times is reporting that Israel launched this latest strike from a base in Turkey. Turkey is denying that the report is true. True or not, the story is being picked up by news sources around the world. This story, if believed, would likely damage PM Erdogan's reputation in the Muslim world.
‘Strange bedfellows’: Turkey and Israel Playing Precarious Game for Regional Dominance
If the reports of Israel carrying out a
strike on Syria through Turkey are true it is tantamount to an act of
war, journalist James Corbett told RT. Such a revelation has the
potential to topple the Turkish regime that already stands on a knife
edge.
Turkey has categorically denied any
involvement in the alleged Israeli strike on a depot in the Syrian
city of Latakia on July 5.
“If this, in fact, did take place
this is a big move. I think it serves to show that Turkey has been
playing a role in shaping what’s been happening in Syria for some
time now,” James Corbett, editor of The Corbett Report told RT.
He stressed this could be a Turkish
play for greater regional dominance and Turkey’s government is
trying to “see the political tea- leaves and read in which
direction the political wind is blowing.”
Corbett suggested Turkey’s tactics
could be a political game, pandering to the US and Israel and
assisting them in waging war on Syria with a view to increasing their
regional importance.
A source told RT that Israel used a
Turkish military base to launch one of its recent airstrikes against
Syria from the sea. The ramifications of an Israeli-Turkish alliance
could be significant, argued Corbett, given the past animosity
between the two countries following the killing of nine Turkish Gaza
activists aboard the Mavi Marmara ship by IDF forces in 2009.
“These types of extreme circumstances
can create strange bedfellows and most people would not see Turkey
and Israel getting into bed in a military operation.”
However, he noted that such an alliance
would not be popular with the Turkish people and could be the death
knell for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s regime in the wake of
anti-government protests.
“If it were revealed they were
complicit with Israel in attacking another Muslim nation that would
be the type of thing that might actually topple the Erdogan
government,” concluded Corbett.
