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“Herein lies the paradox of the Turkish military operation. Ostensibly it is a reprisal operation for the mortar fire from Syrian territory early this week and the suicide attack only a few dozen kilometers from the battle site. [But] the main reason for the incursion was to launch a military plan that had already been drawn up to prevent the Kurds from creating territorial contiguity for themselves…It seems that Turkey is also rethinking its strategy and may no longer be so insistent about blocking Assad’s continued rule at any price.”

(Haaretz correspondent Zvi Barel writing on Turkey’s intervention in Syria, 24/08/2016)