Turkey says "there is another alternative in the fight against terror!"

Today our President is making a one-day visit to Sochi to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discuss energy and other issues, above all Idlib.

It is well known that the Tehran Summit held last week did not produce the desired result in terms of the humanitarian situation in Idlib. Despite all of Turkey's insistence, Iran and Russia remained intent on a military intervention in Idlib, and moreover together with the Assad regime, in order to give major support to the Assad regime.

It was obvious from their whole demeanor that they considered it Idlib's turn, since Idlib, which had been declared a de-escalation zone in Astana, was harboring terrorists, and that once they dealt with it, the Syrian problem would be completely over for them. Yet the intervention they wanted would inevitably have set off irreparable loss of life and a wave of migration toward Turkey. It is truly strange that they can speak so casually of a massacre whose bill humanity and Turkey would pay, just so that the dictator they themselves support may be rid of a few terrorists.

Moreover, it had also been accepted, again in Astana, that not every opponent of the regime, even if armed, could be counted as a terrorist, and that the armed ÖSO elements supported by Turkey in particular would be recognized as a party to the negotiations. Now, what they are really aiming at is nothing other than destroying, under the pretext of terrorists, these opposition forces that are regarded as legitimate all over the world. Otherwise, when it comes to terrorists, Turkey does not think differently from Iran or Russia on this matter.

But Turkey has shown, with Euphrates Shield against DAESH and with the Olive Branch operation against the PYD-PKK, that there is an alternative way of fighting terrorists, and that a war that targets only the terrorists and achieves success against them, without a single civilian casualty, is possible.

Let alone turning a city into ruins, Turkey carried out these operations without wrecking even a single house and without taking the life of a single civilian. Yet every operation that the regime against its own people, and Russia, Iran and the US under the pretext of fighting terrorists, have carried out has massacred at least 30 civilians for every terrorist killed, even if one was killed, and has reduced cities to ruins in which not one stone is left upon another.

With the experience it has demonstrated, Turkey has shown in practice that there are other ways of fighting terrorists, and it is now putting forward this experience as a thesis on Idlib.

It did so at the Tehran Summit, and although the Summit cannot be called very successful, with the clear stance it displayed afterwards it managed to put the brakes on an attack that had been set in motion against Idlib.

Since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, Idlib has become the only place inside Syria to which civilians who fled Assad's massacres and oppression have been able, over time, to flee and take refuge. With Turkey effectively placing it under its protection, it has in this way effectively acquired the character of the safe zone that Turkey wanted to establish inside Syria.

This character was made accepted by all parties within the Astana process as a de-escalation zone. The operation that is now intended to be carried out there with the help of Russia and Iran means, on the one hand, an open violation of the agreement and, on the other, nothing other than restoring Assad's murderous regime. It is truly hard to understand how Iran and Russia still continue to support Assad in this way despite this accumulation of crimes.

Thank God Turkey is at the table in Syria, and in the process that began in Sochi and continued in Istanbul and Tehran, Turkey is, despite everything, able to prevent things from getting even worse.

Perhaps Turkey is not getting exactly the result it wants, but it is not gaining nothing on behalf of the Syrian people either. In today's meeting in Sochi, it can be expected that matters will reach a more reasonable point.

WHAT DID YEZID DO?

A week later my own path also led to Tehran, where the leaders of Turkey, Iran and Russia had held their Summit. I accepted a private invitation I had received, thinking I might be able to observe directly how things are working at the societal level in Iran, which is currently under the American embargo.

Truly, I found Tehran, which I had not visited for a long time, much developed since I last saw it, more orderly, and much better in terms of municipal services.

Under the effect of the embargo, the Iranian Toman has lost nearly three times its value against the dollar. This of course caused great discontent among the people at first, and there were intense reactions and protests in the first days, but in time people calmed down. People adapted quickly to the new situation. Life continues in its own course with all its vitality.

It appears that the Iranian people, who have grown accustomed to living for years under embargo and sanctions, will quickly get used to this latest embargo as well. The Communication Tower in Tehran, completed a few years ago, is regarded as the eighth tallest tower in the world and is packed, together with the shopping mall beneath it. With its population of 15 million, Tehran has shown in its urbanization that, despite embargo conditions, it can cover a significant distance even without the dollar. A great many five-star hotels have opened in a few years.

Because my visit coincided with the month of Muharram, I must say that watching the Muharram mourning in Tabriz, where I stopped after Tehran, which begins at night and lasts for hours, was an entirely different and very distinct experience.

During the days of Ashura, almost everyone wears black clothes. It is a mourning carried out in gatherings at close to ten points along the kilometers-long main avenue of Tabriz, in which almost an entire city takes part, women and children included. The elegies and dirges recited to Imam Hussein in these gatherings from every part of the city, rising from loudspeakers and mingling with the sounds of giant drums, create a fascinating re-enactment. This re-enactment, which begins with "I have come, answering your call (Labbayk ya Hussein)", has a political theology that extends from Tabriz, one of the most important centers of Shiism, all the way to Tehran, and there is an answer that Tehran gives to it.

Without understanding this theology, it is of course impossible to understand how the Tehran regime is able to remain standing despite so many attacks.

While a devout Azeri from Tabriz with whom I had the chance to talk said he was very pleased with Turkey's togetherness with Iran in Tehran, I nonetheless sincerely expressed that I could not understand Iran's support for Assad, who is massacring his own people. I said, "Yezid, the killer of Hussein, whose call you are answering today, is represented today in the person of Assad. That Yezid is today making one million Husseins and one million Karbalas out of his own people, can't you see?" He said, "These are politics."

I said, then what was it that Yezid did?