, Columnist
Turkey’s Stubborn Erdogan Is Undone by Obama, Assad
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The car bombs that killed more than 40 people last weekend in a town in southern Turkey are a reckoning for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
He had made himself party to the fight over Syria and vowed that he would see the end of Bashar al-Assad’s rule. But Assad has hunkered down, and the Turkish leader who calls on U.S. President Barack Obama this week faces a dilemma. In the face of Syrian provocations, Erdogan threatens dire consequences, yet draws back, sheltered behind the assertion that his country won’t be drawn into a full-scale war with the regime in Damascus.