Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned, on more than one occasion, against a repeat in Syria of the Hama and Halabja massacres; he has indicated the international community will take a stand in such a situation, and that Turkey's position will be in line with the international community. This means that the head of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) is expecting the worst when it comes to what is taking place throughout Syria. After Erdogan launched his first warning, it was followed by European sanctions on 13 officials from the ruling regime. After he launched his second warning, on Tuesday, the White House began to leak that it was heading toward considering the Assad regime "illegitimate." The European Union's foreign minister, Catherine Ashton, announced that the EU might expand its sanctions, to cover President Bashar Assad. When Erdogan contradicts the official Syrian version about the killing of soldiers from the Syrian army by protestors, and says that more than 1,000 civilian demonstrators demanding reforms have been killed (while the opposition websites talk about 650-800 killed), this means the Turkish information on the ongoing confrontation between the regime and the protest movement in Syria indicates that it might lead to a reiteration of the Hama incidents in the 1980s. The media blackout on the details of the crackdown in Syrian towns and villages is not the only thing increasing the fears about a bloody experience of the kind Erdogan warned about, amid a drop in the number of images sent by activists during the last two weeks about the crackdown and the popular action, after an arrest campaign that has targeted thousands. The pillars of the regime state that they intend a fight "to the end” against those they consider Salafis, which indicates how this definition has become generalized, along with the labeling of protestors who include the unarmed, and secular types, as "terrorist groups," to justify the use of relentless force against them. This is because the regime fears undertaking true reform, accepting political pluralism and freedoms, etc. The leaders of the regime in Syria are paying no heed to the loss of friends such as Erdogan, who has become a strong partner of late, along with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and John Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Also, the Syrian regime is unconcerned that the governments of Britain, Germany and Italy are stepping back from their policy of openness with Syria, and is ignoring the advice of Gulf states, which are neutral, about what Syria is experiencing. They are advising reforms and distancing the country from Iranian policy. However, this means only that the rulers in Damascus have decided to steadfastly resist any change that might result from a decision from within the regime, while attaching no importance to the new isolation to which Syria will return, regionally and internationally. The policy of "backs to the wall," in the face of the international community was already tried by Damascus with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 in 2004; Syria considered it "non-existent and silly." This policy resulted in other international resolutions that were based on 1559; these resolutions were about Lebanon, and had Syria as their objective. But this policy by Damascus was based on the alliance, which went as far as moving in lockstep with Iran. Meanwhile, Syria benefited from America's stumbling policies in Iraq and Palestine and its failure in Afghanistan, and Israel's failure in Lebanon, after which Syria recovered its regional role. Is this policy now appropriate in 2011, the year of the American withdrawal from Iraq, and at a time of change among the Palestinians, with the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas being a prime factor in this change?
