Turkey-Syria Border Tension: Three Things to Know

Turkey's parliament has authorized the country's military to take further action against Syria after a mortar attack on Turkish territory killed five civilians. CFR's Steven A. Cook says the decision is unlikely to lead to war between Turkey and Syria for three reasons:

- Turkish interests: While the Turks reserve the right to retaliate against Syrian provocations, they have also clearly indicated that "they are not interested in the Syrian conflict widening," Cook says.

- Syrian interests: "Syrians don't want war themselves," Cook says, and they have conveyed that cross-border shelling will not happen again.

- The Kurdish factor: Turkey is also unlikely to pursue a full-scale invasion of Syria because it could encourage the nationalist sentiments of Syria's large Kurdish population, and result in violent action by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Cook argues.

[victav]

These segments make me happy that I'm subbed to CFR. I don't always have time to watch the hour long videos you guys upload. I feel like these clips are the perfect balance between brevity and good information.

[LanceWinslow]

Well, it's a little more complicated than this, but perhaps this is a lead-in for a larger conversation on the topic.

[Uhmu]

If the whole content that cfr publicly produces would be this, it would be indeed disappointing, but luckily, it's not =D

[hooah]

Perhaps you should start reading written articles (the cfr provides many on their website) rather than getting all your analyses from you tube uploads.

[Nostradamia]

I personally find very disappointing to be treated like idiots with this sort of "no analysis" 3 point simplistic summaries. And, if that's how they think, we are in trouble.

[Nostradamia]

Thank you for this explanation. But, what we'd like to understand is:
a) Why is NATO supporting genocide and Al Qaida? Don't you (CFR and such) have any pride or just a little respect for intelligence? (the answer is no, but I recommend you try)
b) Why in the world would Syria have shelled Turkey? It doesn't seem to be in its own best interest. Or, is Syria on the verge of commiting suicide and now showing its determination to use its WMDs as it stated? Or, is this not another NATO wicked trick?