Turkey's efforts are evidenced by many visits to Russia and Iran since the early months of the Syrian crisis. President Abdullah Gul and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters last week while en route to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, that the establishment a common position with the two countries on stopping the bloodshed had topped the agenda of those visits.

Turkey's quick change of position towards the Syrian regime, with which it had enjoyed good relations until the start of Syria's brutal crackdown on dissent in March 2011, has led to criticism among Turkish political circles.

Turkey responded to this criticism over its Syria policy, which brought Turkey to break all ties with its southern neighbor. “We had cooperated well with the Syrian regime before, without a doubt. But when the regime started an overt war against its own citizens, we were obliged to state our position. We have even conducted separate negotiations processes with Iran and Russia,” Gul stated, indicating that Turkey has done all it can regarding the Syrian crisis thus far.

“The perception that Turkey has implemented a one-dimensional policy regarding Syria is wrong. Turkey has used all channels and all means to solve the Syrian crisis. If we cannot put a stop to this massacre, we cannot stand together with the tyrant [in Syria],” Davutoglu added.

Sharp differences of opinion regarding the Syrian conflict between Iran and Turkey as well as Turkey's decision to host a NATO early-warning radar system that would detect missiles fired by Iran have led to increasingly tense rhetoric from both sides.

Turkey has also worked to develop deep strategic ties with Russia despite the two countries' differing positions on the Syrian conflict. The last bilateral visit between the two was on July18. Russia and Turkey have seen their volume of trade increase to $35 billion in recent years, particularly thanks to investments in the energy sector. Russia provides approximately 58 percent of Turkey's natural gas supplies, and this highlights the importance of maintaining good relations between the two countries. Additionally, Turkey's trade volume with Iran amounted to more than $15 billion in 2011, mostly from natural gas and oil supplies exported by the Shiite regime to Turkey.

Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, is adamantly opposed to any mention in the council's resolutions of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which could eventually allow the use of force to end the conflict in Syria. Russia, alongside China, has vetoed three times such resolutions before the council that would call for any military intervention in Syria.

Davutoglu's two-day visit to Tehran in July of 2011 was an important first step urging Iran to push the Syrian regime into stopping its brutal crackdown on protesters and to conform to its earlier pledges of reforms. Iran is touted as an influential country in Syria and its chief supporter, as both countries see Israel as their arch enemy in the region. Iran also attaches strategic importance to Syria as a way through which it sends support to the Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group in Lebanon. Davutoglu again visited Iran in January, emphasizing that Turkey does not want to see a sectarian cold war fought in the Middle East and noting the importance of coordinating efforts with Iran in order to prevent the Syrian crisis from becoming further aggravated.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Davutoglu have also talked with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi about the crisis, on the sidelines of a 66th UN General Assembly meeting last September in New York. Turkey has also talked with the Arab League, which has convened several times since the last quarter of 2011 to discuss sanctions for the Syrian regime in an effort to stop the bloodshed.

The crisis in Syria was also a high priority issue for Turkey's talks with the Iranian regime in Tehran in March, immediately following a two-day international nuclear security summit in Seoul, South Korea. Erdoğan, speaking with Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials, also reiterated Turkey's willingness to mediate nuclear talks between Iran and world powers in a dispute over Tehran's nuclear program.

Meanwhile, Salehi has made several visits to Turkey since last year to discuss relations with Turkey in light of the Syrian crisis and other concerns in the region, including the deployment of NATO radar on Turkish soil and Iran's nuclear program.

Observers say that even though Russia and Iran have clearly drawn red lines in the issue since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, last-minute changes in the positions of these countries are possible until the final outcomes of the civil war in Syria are determined.

Oytun Orhan, a Syria analyst for the Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies (ORSAM), says that “the winner of the arm-wrestle between the regime and the opposition is not yet clear and the relentless struggle between the two sides continues.”

“The fact that the Syrian regime is unable to repress the opposition has brought a change to Russian discourse, which now does not overtly support the Syrian regime. Assuring the country [Russia] that its economic, military and political interests will be maintained in Syria could lead [Russia] to commit to a compromise that would not include the Assad regime [in a post-conflict Syria],” Orhan said in remarks to Today's Zaman.

Today's Zaman