Turkish Ties (Syria-Report‪)‬

Strain Threatens Honey-moon, Strategic Depth Turkey's efforts to persuade Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to swap repression for reform have so far come to naught, exposing the limits of its influence in a country where Iran also wields clout. Relations took a turn for the worse this week when leaders of the Syrian opposition chose to meet in Turkey to hammer out a plan for democracy and to denounce President Bashar Assad's regime for its brutal crackdown on its opponents. In the light of this tension, one Lebanese newspaper raised the question: "Is the honey-moon over" between Syria and Turkey? The pro-Syrian Lebanese daily AS SAFIR wondered on May 17: "Has the Syrian-Turkish strategic depth come to an end?"