Turkey: realism required role for Assad

- One to reconcile the fiercest opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Turkish government finally seems a role for Assad after the war.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said Friday on a visit in Switzerland ' we have to be realistic, the facts on the ground have changed dramatically and Turkey can no longer control without Assad's demand that simply can not, '' said Sisek. He said that the suffering of the Syrian people and all tragedies are clearly Assad's fault. '

The Turkish leader Recep Tayyp Erdogan as prime minister and then as president fiercely turned against Assad throughout the civil war in Syria. Like a number of Western powers, he argued repeatedly that no settlement of the conflict is possible if Assad does not disappear first from the political scene.

The Assad regime is particularly last year, backed by Russian military intervention and crucial support from trained Shiite militias, especially those of the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon. Sunni rebels who supports Turkey are weak. The Kurdish-Syrian militias are advancing, but Ankara just rather not have the upper hand.