As two Turkish pilots were
kidnapped on Aug. 9 by a group demanding that Turkey use its influence
with Syrian opposition forces to secure the release of nine Lebanese
Shiites, this week’s guest for Monday Talk has said that the kidnapping
of the Turkish pilots shows that the Syrian conflict is regionally
expanding.
“Unfortunately,
Turks have become a target, not just the Turkish government. It also
shows the regional expansion of the conflict in Syria — the Lebanese
are vulnerable, the Turks are vulnerable, the Syrians are vulnerable,
the Bahrainis; it’s become a regional conflict,” said Geneive Abdo,
nonresident fellow in the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the
Brookings Institution, and a fellow in the Middle East program at the
Stimson Center.
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