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Press TV has interviewed Sukant Chandan, political analyst from London, to discuss NATO’s influence on Turkey over the crisis in Syria.

Press TV: Our guest [Jihad Mouracadeh] there in Beirut is suggesting that the recent developments in the Qalamoun area close to the Lebanon border have nothing to do with what’s happening now in this area where Turkish forces have been involved in helping the insurgents close to the Turkish border. Do you agree with that?

Chandan: Good evening, sister and to all the viewers and to our guest in Beirut. Well, it’s a nice turnaround, isn’t it, from the brief spat that the relationship between the white settler Zionist ... [entity] of Israel had with Turkey? -Now they found their rapprochement and their coming together again with Israel just a few days ago, having bombed Syria, and now Turkey having attacked a Syrian fighter jet which probably is in Syrian airspace.

So, really we can see this interesting - with all the rhetoric, with all the arguments that myself and the colleague in Beirut may have, and the different sides we have, there’s some very clear, blatant alliances going on.

On the one hand, you have Israel with Turkey, NATO and its regional allies, all rallied against the Syrian Arab republic, who has some of its allies in the ....This is really a very clear division where you have progressive humanity, humanity that’s looking for the independence of the global south, against the greatest purveyors of violence, to paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King, on the planet today which is the NATO alliance with their allies.

This is broadly the situation we’re seeing in Syria. On the specific, it cannot be divorced, Turkey shooting down of the Syrian jet on the border region between the two countries. It cannot be divorced from obviously the defeats of the death squads in the Syrian Lebanese border region.

Obviously the death squads need a continual flow and supply route to conduct their death squad operations. I think although it may not be utterly directly related to it but obviously it is indirectly related to it.

Press TV: Do you think then that Turkey would be reluctant to take unilateral action but is going to appeal to NATO or to its Western allies to launch some kind of multilateral military intervention in Syria? Do you think that may happen?

Chandan: I think Turkey is really annoyed, and I’m using diplomatic language that I can use on this station. But they’re very, very upset and annoyed with NATO because they feel, and they’re right to feel actually, that they’re being used and abused by NATO for the benefit not of Turkey but of London, Paris and Washington mostly, and Tel Aviv.

Has Turkey benefited anything in its 180 degree turnaround and sellout of its decent bilateral relations with the Syrian Arab republic until 2011? No.

It’s been an absolute loser, second only perhaps to Lebanon or even more than Lebanon. Turkey has been the biggest loser apart from the Syrian people and the Syrian body politic of the events that’s going on in Syria.

Turkey’s going to try to bleed and cry and beg and get very frustrated and blustered in relation to NATO.

But NATO are not stupid. NATO’s probably the most smartest. I don’t think they’re ethically wise or good, .... They are using Turkey for their own benefit.

Turkey was complaining and nearly fell out with NATO – actually openly fell out with Europe over the seven month NATO bombing of Libya. Now really Turkey is very upset and it knows just by the behavior of Erdogan, you know that he is being used.

But what kind of a man is this? What kind of a leader is this? Is it a big man? Is he a macho to what, to join in with the [Persian] Gulf States and NATO and Israel in shooting into Syria? Everyone is shooting into Syria!

Perhaps I would say to my colleague in Beirut, the Syrian government should not be shooting down Turkish planes and the Turkish government should not be shooting down Syrian planes. Surely these two neighbors should come together and develop a strategic partnership with the rest of their alliances in the region for the betterment of everyone, instead of being used and abused by NATO to the benefit of who? –Not Turkey, that’s for sure.

Press TV: A lot of people in the comments part of the program were saying that Turkey’s going to pay the price, etcetera. Turkey’s saying that it is only going to intervene or it’s only going to take action if its national security is threatened. We all know that its neighbor, Syria, is facing one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent history and it’s inevitably going to be influenced by it, but do you think that Syria is posing a threat to Turkey’s national security?

Chandan: Turkey wants a buffer zone on the Syria side of their border with Syria.

But frankly, Turkey needs a buffer zone inside its own borders because what it’s developing is an absolutely ridiculous, self-defeating strategy in the sense that does Turkey think that after the Syrian situation calms down that it’ll be left alone by the death squads that it is giving oxygen to, training, facilitating into Syria?

Everyone knows, any very misguided, misdirected fool for NATO, i.e. a support of death squads, can join the death squads through Turkey through the border into Syria. Everyone knows that.

But I think what’s the obvious strategy of London, Washington, Paris and Tel Aviv in relation to Turkey – Turkey is a big state, it’s a strong state in the region, and for the West, it has to be really put into a vise so it can be neutralized in the near future.

I think what’s going to happen, now Erdogan is losing mass support across Turkey. I mean, he’s playing his role so foolishly and self-defeatingly. After him and his ruling party are out of power, what’s probably going to happen? Then the West are going to turn the green light on to the death squads in Turkey, and Turkey is going to probably face something similar to what’s happening in Syria. I mean, I think it’s really, really obvious what’s going on, and I think the way Erdogan is reacting and getting frustrated telegraphs to the world that he knows he’s being put into this position. But he’s foolish and really unwise to not understand and then to take action to correct his mistakes and his wrongdoing. He’s obviously too arrogant and I think the arrogance can see off the man. It really speaks very loudly to the world, not least the Turkish people.

Press TV: Quickly if you can, what’s your response to that [previous guest speaker’s comments]? Why would NATO do something like that to its ally?

Chandan: It’s not why would it do it, it is doing it for several years now, and it’s continuing to do it, and Erdogan is telegraphing to the world that that’s exactly what’s going on.

Our guest in Beirut is calling the death squads ‘resistance’, but the actual resistance of the Syrian government and their allies have cut off the supply route and the route to which the death squads were using to go into Lebanon to fight the real resistance which is Lebanese Hezbollah. I think our guest has got things upside down.