Hurriyet published an article by Murat Yetkin devoted to the continuing Syrian crisis. "A critical foreign ministers’ meeting for the “Friends of the Syrian People” group is taking place in Istanbul on April 20. It is critical because the civil war in Syria is coming to a critical stage," the article reads.
"The Baathist regime is fragile but so is the opposition. Russia continues to support the current regime, like Iran but with different motivations. Tehran sees a non-Sunni ally in al-Assad’s power, whereas for Moscow it is an oasis in the Middle East against American influence; an oasis which provides Russia the only naval base in the region. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who met with Davutoğlu in Istanbul on April 16, insisted that a solution which does not exclude al-Assad could be found. Turkey, having a 910-km border and a joint Kurdish problem with Syria thinks al-Assad should go, also supported by France and Qatar with nuances, who think al-Assad must go. But Ankara knows that without the U.S. putting its weight in, Russia enjoys its opposing power, with a broadening front; Israel for example would prefer al-Assad to stay rather than a Sunni Islamic regime taking power in Syria," Yetkin writes.
"And the fear is not about any Sunni Islamic power in Damascus, which would have control over al-Assad’s missiles and chemical and biological arsenal. It is al-Qaeda. Its name in Syria is different. It is “Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahl ash-Shaam,” or “Support Front for the People of Greater Syria,” or simply al-Nusra. The group declared itself on January 23, 2012, during the Syrian civil war. This fact endorses the Turkish position that it is not because of al-Nusra that al-Assad has started bombing his own people, but al-Nusra is one of the byproducts of the civil war in Syria."
"In order to eliminate al-Qaeda from being a power alternative in Mali and using the West Mediterranean as a stepping stone to Europe, France intervened its former colony, being backed by the U.S. and Britain; also among the Friends of the Syrian People. If the Istanbul meeting produces a new formula considering the concerns coming from international terrorism and al-Qaeda, it may produce a result to end the civil war in Syria this time," the author of the article concludes.
The Moscow Times published an articel on Tamerlan and Johar Tsarnayev, who are accused of launching an attack on the Boston Marathon. "Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who in the past has distanced Chechnya from Chechens linked to terrorist cells, underlined that the Chechen people cannot be blamed for the tragedy in Boston. "The roots of this evil should looked for in the U.S." he wrote on his Instagram account, pointing out that the Tsarnaev brothers had lived in the U.S. for many years and "their worldview was formed there," the article reads.
"Chechnya, Dagestan and the other North Caucasus republics have been a breeding ground for terror since the first Chechen war, and militants from the region have staged multiple attacks in Russia."
"President Vladimir Putin did not immediately comment on the latest developments. But he offered to help the U.S. investigate the Boston bombings shortly after they occurred, and on Thursday he called the attacks "disgusting," the article reads.
