Turkey’s foreign minister has thanked German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her support of the Turkish government’s demand to establish safe zones inside Syria, while U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed wariness over a safe zone in Syria, saying that up to 30,000 troops would be needed to maintain the area.
- De facto, since Aleppo bombing by Russian army, Syrians cannot enter any more Turkey. They are stopped at the border. This decision was taken by Turkey without any existence of “safe zone” yet. This means that protection of the population is not the main goal behind this decision of “safe zone” in Syria: stemming the “inflow” of refugees is the main objective.
– Again, militarization of refugee “problems”: refugees will be surrounded by army to “protect” them. According to John Kerry, the deployment of up to 30,000 troops is needed and nobody agreed clearly on such deployment. Merkel agrees on safe zone but it is not sure that such protection can be granted to refugees. And what does protection mean when such troops can be the proper target of armed groups in Syria?
– Merkel still raises her voice to welcome refugees in Europe and faces all other European countries, stuck in the closure of borders. But meanwhile, Merkel agrees de facto on the closure of all Turkish borders: Germany controls NATO operations at sea and support Turkish desire of establishing a “safe zone”.
– Hypocrisy: "This proposal of Turkey was not seriously discussed when we first brought it to the agenda. But even with delay, Turkey’s proposal is now understood”. NO: the idea of safe zones had been rejected by the international community as an irrelevant “solution” that went against refugees safety. It had been seriously discussed and rejected with arguments. “Given the huge refugee problem threatening the EU’s unity”, Germany (and certainly the European Union will follow Merkel) changes her mind. For European ’safety’ and ’peace’, not for refugees’ protection.
