T

urkey is threatening Europe with an influx of millions of refugees from Syria’s conflict, while the United States this week announced over $100 million in “humanitarian aid” for Syria. The Europeans are wringing their hands over further problems from unwanted migration, yet Brussels continues to pile economic sanctions on war-torn Syria, thus impeding the nation’s recovery and exacerbating suffering.

The guilty parties to Syria’s suffering and misery have the rank audacity to profess seeming compassion.

As Russia points out, US “aid” is a cover for supporting anti-government groups in Syria. Both Turkey and the US are exploiting conflict and human suffering for political ends. While the Europeans completely misdirect their ostensible concern, by blaming the victim – Syria – instead of condemning the aggressors, with whom they are complicit.

The cynicism of “humanitarian concern” parlayed by antagonists as a cover for ulterior agendas is as old as war itself. We are seeing this reprehensible ruse being played out once again in Syria where NATO member Turkey, the US and European states are expressing unctuous concern for civilians displaced in that country’s conflict. Maybe if they had shown such genuine apprehensions nine years ago, the war in Syria would never have started.

Turkey’s illegal military incursions in Syria are by far the biggest recent factor causing disruption. Yet the US and the European states turn a blind eye to Ankara’s criminal adventurism and its blatant violation of Syria’s sovereignty. Indeed, Washington is even considering supplying weapons to Turkey to assist its invasion, a move which could have far-reaching disastrous results from internationalizing the war.

Absurdly, the Western powers are blaming the Syrian government and allied Russian and Iranian forces for creating a “humanitarian crisis”.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is threatening to flood the European Union with millions of refugees if the EU does not assist his country’s military operations in Syria. Erdogan is maliciously playing with people’s lives for his dubious geopolitical schemes for fulfilling Neo-Ottoman ambitions. His actions are that of a blackmailer to leverage human suffering and European fears of migrant destabilization in order to further his unlawful military aggression in Syria. Such are the European fears over the bloc’s internal political problems with rising anti-immigrant populist parties, Brussels is likely to appease Erdogan, thereby worsening the humanitarian problems in Syria.

Washington’s cynicism is outstanding too. This week, the US ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft announced $108 million for “humanitarian aid” to counter “the ongoing crisis caused by the Assad regime, Russian, and Iranian forces.” Craft and another envoy James Jeffrey showed where this “aid” is bound for when they visited the White Helmets by illegally entering Syria’s Idlib province from Turkey. The so-called White Helmets “rescue group” are a propaganda agency affiliated with terrorist networks.

Syria’s nine-year war and horrendous human suffering stems from the nefarious Western agenda for regime change in that nation. The US and NATO powers have pursued this agenda by covertly sponsoring terror proxies to do their bidding. Western governments have augmented the pressure on the Syrian nation by imposing economic sanctions and blocking efforts for postwar reconstruction. The European position is particularly disgraceful and self-defeating. Brussels is anxious over the repercussions from refugee flows to the EU yet the bloc imposes sanctions on Syria, hence ensuring humanitarian hardships worsen and compound, and acting as a push factor in displacing people.

If Western governments had any authentic concern for humanitarian suffering in Syria, they would not have their military forces illegally occupying Syrian territory. The US and Europe should be admonishing Turkey to get its forces out of Syria and abide by international laws. But then the US and other NATO powers have no moral authority on that score because they themselves are illegally embroiled in Syria, violating the country’s sovereignty.

The government of President Bashar al-Assad is the sovereign authority in Syria as recognized by the United Nations. As such, Damascus has the imperative right to eradicate all foreign-backed terrorist groups remaining on its territory. These internationally proscribed insurgents and their sponsors in Washington, Ankara, London, Paris, among others, are the root of the conflict and its dire humanitarian consequences.

Cynical Western expressions of “concern” for refugees and humanitarianism are part of the problem for why the conflict in Syria is prolonged. The Syrian nation is restoring itself in spite of this Western exploitation of its misery. The surest way to restore Syria is to swiftly end the war by defeating all the terror groups, and for all illegal foreign interference in the country to be brought to a halt.

Europe and the US should be paying war reparations to Syria in addition to ending all illegal economic sanctions, if that is, these powers were sincere in their official pronouncements about humanitarian aid.