On The Listening Post this week: The quagmire in Syria gets worse and the reporting gets much more confusing and difficult. Plus the long history of blackface in the Arab world. 

Turkey, Syria and the war that just gets tougher to report

Ceasefire or no ceasefire, Turkey‘s decision to alter the military equation in Syria is a geopolitical game-changer.

The talk in the western media has been of Americans double-crossing the Kurds, of possible ethnic cleansing, even a looming genocide. The narrative the Erdogan government in Ankara has tried to get out there – that Kurdish forces on its southern frontier pose a mortal threat – has been lost on the western commentariat. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s message is far better received at home, thanks to domestic media outlets that learned long ago that they criticise this government at their peril.

Contributors:

Gonul Tol – director of Turkey Program, Middle East Institute

Borzou Daragahi – international correspondent, The Independent

Mohammed Salih – doctoral student, Annenberg School for Communication

Soner Cagaptay – director of Turkish Research Program, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

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