Resolute in Boosting Alliance

A Turkish political analyst believes Iran, Turkey and Russia unity can be interpreted as the era of new decision makers in Syria. When the Turkish, Russian and Iranian presidents met last week in Ankara, a photo sent a bold statement to the whole world. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhani were hand in hand as they vowed to preserve Syria’s territorial integrity and achieve a political solution, wrote Yunus Paksoy for TRT on Sunday. According to sources in Ankara, the positive mood at last week’s summit surpassed the previous one in Russian city of Sochi even though the sides had differences of opinion on several issues, he said. In fact, Ankara, Moscow and Tehran do not shy away from expressing their discontent with some of their actions on the ground in Syria, he said, adding that “Tehran, for example, expressed once again at the last week’s summit that Ankara should hand over Afrin to the Syrian government, which Ankara refused.” The strong support of Russia and Iran for the government in Damascus does not prevent Turkey from forging closer ties with the two countries, he concluded.