The world turned a deaf ear to the emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group, or Daesh in Arabic, till it had occupied vast tracts of territory in Iraq and Syria. Only then did the big powers realise the kind of threat Daesh could pose to the region and the entire world if it managed to create its so-called Islamic Caliphate. The US then led an international coalition to fight the group and expel it from the territory it had occupied in the two Arab countries. In agreement with the Iraqi rulers, Washington and the other international and regional powers helped the Iraqi army to disperse the criminals and liberate Iraqi territory. In Syria, however, the situation was different. The international community, except for Iran and Russia, were clearly inimical towards the Damascus regime. So, they chose to resort to a proxy war turning the Syrian conflict to a civil war and a place for testing all kinds of weapons against civilians. Despite the terrible consequences of this policy that caused the death of more than half million civilians and turned half the Syrian people into refugees, the international community seemed incapable of restoring stability to Syria. Instead, all powers attempted to prolong the conflict to expand their influence in the region. This could be why the different powers involved responded coldly to the repeated Turkish assaults on different parts of Syria especially those with a sizeable Kurdish population who put up a firm resistance to the Daesh group. Thus, when Turkey launched its Operation Olive Branch in Afrin in northern Syria, the different parties were satisfied to express a verbal concern and concentrated instead on the operations led by the Syrian army against the Ghouta region. When, however, Turkish forces and their supporting group, the so-called Free Syrian Army, managed to occupy the centre of the city of Afrin this week, different countries started condemning the Turkish occupation of Syrian territory. Apparently, this was due to Erdogan's announced intention to expand the operation to other towns with a Kurdish population in order to prevent the creation of a Kurdish state on Turkey's border. The US and other countries then expressed concern and rejection of Turkish military attacks targeting regions that came within their sphere of influence. The question the world community needs to answer now is: What is the difference between Daesh and Erdogan's Turkey that has violated the sovereignty of the State of Syria and means to occupy some of its territory? With Erdogan's known aspiration to revive the Ottoman Empire at a cost to Turkey's neighbouring states, the Afrin operation could be a step towards achieving this goal.
