Swamp and mosquitoes

Talking to reporters in Antalya on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker made an important warning to European nations: No one should mix up the terrorists that staged the Paris attacks and the people seeking refuge in Europe fleeing the attacks by the very same groups back in their homeland.

The Paris attacks demonstrated the appalling security failure of France. The heinous terrorist attacks on civilians, which also underlined a determined vicious attempt by the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) gang to provoke a new "Crusade," should not, of course, be confused with the immense refugee problem at hand. American President Barrack Obama, talking to media after a meeting with an army of Turks led by President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, also underlined the primary task at hand: to fight ISIL while helping efforts to cope with the refugee crisis.

Despite some structural handicaps (such as the refusal to accept refugees from the east and giving Syrian migrants a generous "guest" status), Turkey has been rather munificent towards the refugees. The country has spent almost eight billion euros over the past four years for the over 2.2 million Syrian refugees it has been sheltering. What is more important is the fact that the Turkish nation, which itself has many problems, has been trying to embrace refugees as warmly as possible. From time to time some nasty developments naturally take place among the refugees and Turks, but it must be considered as well that in some border towns, such as Kilis, the number of refugees has exceeded that of the local townspeople.

The Vienna talks and the tentative agreement for the timetable of an 18-month process to transform Syria from its current calamity into some...