Thanks to big power politics, the Syrian conflict drags on without an end in sight. An estimated 30,000 have lost their lives. Last week, Syrian mortar fire fell on the Turkish border town of Akcakale killing five civilians, including a mother and her three children, exacerbating tensions between the two neighbours. Damascus has offered condolences to the victims' families but stopped short of an apology, saying it has yet to complete an inquiry into the incident. Considering that Turkey hosts not only a large number of Syrian refugees but also Free Syrian Army, it would not be surprising if Damascus later claims that the real target were fleeing rebels.
Turkey, understandably, was furious at Syria and responded quickly firing artillery shells across the border, while the Turkish parliament acceded to the government request to authorise military operations inside Syrian territory "to act in haste and in time in the face of additional risks and threats that may be directed against our country." The US and its European allies saw the incident as an opportunity to create a justification for military action against Syria at an opportune moment, initiating a condemnatory statement in the UN Security Council. A carefully-worded statement described the incident has having highlighted the grave impact the crisis in Syria has on "international peace and security". Russia blocked the move until the line "international peace and security was replaced with "regional peace and stability." The earlier reference, of course, could have been used to justify international intervention, such as imposition of a Libya-like no-fly-zone over Syria. Still, in theory at least, the reference to Syrian crisis threatening 'regional peace and stability' could serve the same purpose given that Turkey is a member of Nato. And Article 5 of the treaty provides that if a Nato ally comes under an armed attack, each and every member of the alliance will consider it an armed attack against all members, and will take actions it deems necessary to assist the ally attacked.
However, Turkey appears in no mood to start a war with Syria. The government request for authorisation, even though for a limited mandate, received 320 votes in a 550-member house. More importantly, even though the parliament insisted it was not a mandate for war, on the day of authorisation, anti-war demonstrations erupted in many Turkish cities, including Istanbul, Izmir, Eskisehir, and Mersin. Much as the US and its European allies would want to launch an assault on Syria, that is not doable because Russia and China would block UN sanction of any such move, and also because it would be a costly exercise. Hence, they have been relying on their regional allies, who are busy fuelling the conflict with money, weapons and communications equipment. And of course the Assad regime gets help from Russia and Iran. Sadly, regional and international rivalries have turned a genuine pro-democracy movement into a brutal civil war. As friends of Damascus, both Russia and China have a special responsibility to work for a peaceful resolution of the conflict. They should tell President Bashar al-Assad to step down, paving the way for democratic change through internationally-supervised elections.