Prospect of Turkish Military Invasion in Syria is Very High

 Senior Fellow at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies Boris Dolgov told Radio Sputnik that the prospect of Turkey’s military invasion in Syria is “very high.”

The current activity at the Turkish-Syrian border suggests that Turkey is preparing to invade Syria, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Thursday.For its part, the Saudi Arabian authorities have declared readiness to take part in a ground operationin Syria. According to the Minister of Defense of the Kingdom Advisor Gen. Ahmed Asiri, in the Syrian territory, the Saudi military will fight only with Daesh.

Senior Fellow at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies Boris Dolgov told Radio Sputnik that Turkey and Saudi Arabia have always supported radical Islamists in Syria who are fighting in the Syrian territory against the government army and President Bashar Assad.

“Their goal is to bring to power Sunni forces in Syria. This aim remains in politics of Saudi Arabia and Turkey. In addition, Turkey has an aim of annexing the territory in Syria, home to the Turkmen, which was a part of the Ottoman Empire once.”

Dolgov further said, “There is also the financial interests of Turkey which is the oil business captured by Daesh. This is also the reason as to why the Turkish leadership right now is supporting radical Islamists,” the expert told Sputnik.

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry provided the international community with irrefutable video evidence of Turkish self-propelled artillery units shelling Syrian settlements in the northern part of Latakia province.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov pointed out that the Russian Defense Ministry has intensified all types of surveillance activity in the Middle East.

“So if someone in Ankara thinks that cancelling a Russian observation flight would help conceal something, that is just the mark of an amateur,” Konashenkov said.

Boris Dolgov stressing this point said that, “I believe that Turkey’s likelihood of military intervention in Syria is very high. The Turkish leadership has long been saying that the Turkish troops need to protect Syrian civilians. Added to this statement there are allegations suggesting that Russia has bombed civilian objects, which is absolute nonsense. But it can be a pretext for an invasion,” the expert concluded.

MIDDLE EAST