Is Turkey Sending Troops to Syria?

We all have been bombarded by news and allegations about Syria this week. Some were about the radically changing dynamics within Syria, while others related to shifting regional alliances and U.S. policy.

Let?s go through them one by one.

First of all: Is Turkey sending troops to Syria?

This question was raised by a deputy of the main opposition party in Turkey two days ago. The Huffington Post also reported recently that Turkey and Saudi Arabia are working to intervene in Syria soon.

All of the reliable sources in Ankara who I spoke with denied this claim, saying this possibility is out of question.

Yesterday it was reported by the Associated Press that ?Turkey and Saudi Arabia are in a pact to help anti-Assad rebels.? Is this true?

Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tanju Bilgiç, who I reached via phone, neither approved nor denied the allegation. He just said that ?Turkey?s and Saudi Arabia?s views on Syria overlap. Our cooperation is proceeding.?

An important security source in Ankara acknowledged that the recent rapprochement between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar is strengthening the Syrian opposition. ?Before, different countries were following different policies in the field, undermining each other?s efforts. Now a partnership has emerged,? he said on the phone.

The reply of Joshua Landis, who is the Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma and a leading expert of the Syrian crisis in the U.S., verifies this allegation.

 ?These three countries have decided to fund Ahrar al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam and are willing to close their eyes to al-Nusra?s partnership with them. They probably argue that these groups will become dominant and push al-Nusra...