No Gregory Peck and romantic films, but Turkish President Erdogan's visit to an armored Rome is certainly a black and white visit. For those who have forgotten that on returning from Paris to Turkey on 8 January the state of emergency was extended for the sixth time 18 months after the failed coup, we need to remember the balance. On January 20, Erdogan sent his army to the area of northwestern Syria, in the Kurdish-controlled district of Afrin, with the official aim of fighting against the forces of the YPG (People's Protection Units) which he considers terrorists on a par with of the PKK, despite the fact that the UN secretariat speaks of 15 civilians fleeing and the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights has already recorded 67 civilian deaths and 91 Kurdish fighters in the first week of clashes.
On January 30, while new democratic elections were being asked in Sochi in Russia at the table of the Peace Conference for Syria, Erdogan launched an air offensive in support of the ground offensive. Nervousness in the European Union has spread after Macron's harsh words and Merkel's embarrassment over the use of German-made tanks on the territory of Afrin, in a mission that violates international law for many. The Turkish response has returned like a boomerang against the Germans themselves, "accused" of having sold rifles and missiles to the Kurdish Peshmerga to fight ISIS in the field. This is a good deal for the bread of NATO jurists, but above all for the "new coalition" into which the newly installed German government is inserted.
Alongside the Turkish army there are about 25 mercenaries from the Free Syrian Army who will face, in addition to the YPG, also a coalition of Syrian Democratic Forces, also previously supported by the US in an anti-IS function.
For a country where there seems to be no alternative to a fierce nationalism and a dictatorship that does not like dissent and fights it daily, any offer of peace dialogue or negotiation which Erdogan wants to champion in his missions is deprived of credibility to the eyes of NATO itself of which Turkey is a part. With 50 arrests and 110 civil servants who have lost their jobs because according to the Turkish government they were linked to the movement of the dissident Gulen, one certainly cannot speak calmly of democratic normalization or community chapters, as the French recalled.
And such a punctual visit in the middle of the electoral campaign makes it clear how the attempt to balance games of a regime close to Russia and Iran involves a country like ours close to new important elections whose foreign policy is clouded by European impotence, demonstrated clearly in this Syrian conflict for which absolutely nothing has been done, except to take note of an abnormal toll of civilian deaths, over 500 dead, and a further strengthening of migratory movements.
In the silence of the Italian newspapers on the offensive called anachronistically "olive branch" and the stalemate on January 22 at the UN Security Council, it is clear Erdogan's lack of acceptance of any "security belt" close to the Turkish-Syrian borders, announced by the USA on 14 January, which is not under the total control of the Turks themselves. Furthermore, the risk of an expansion of the Turkish invasion operation is very high, despite Assad having declared that he considers it a violation of national sovereignty.
Everyone wants a role in the future Syria: Russians and Americans in the lead, and the Sultan's skilful move in the heart of Rome that puts the question of Jerusalem back into play on the plate of future post-conflict alliances should not be underestimated. But as demonstrated by the trial against the writer Elif Safak for her best-seller "The Bastard of Istanbul", the European Union should reflect on the backward steps taken by such an extraordinary country, a bridge between Europe and the Middle East, because of Erdogan's regime. In addition to arrests and mass dismissals from the workplace, over 160 newspapers have been closed, about 200 journalists imprisoned, four thousand teachers expelled from universities alone, not to mention a radically changed education system and a marked regression in gender equality rights . Perhaps the motorcycle ride through the center of Rome for this time we can also avoid it.
