Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's comments over the weekend that Turkey would be justified in intervening in Syria reminded me of something similar President Abdullah Gul said when I interviewed him briefly in Kuala Lumpur in 2003 (Gul was foreign minister then).
Drawing comparisons with the US occupation of Iraq (Turkey opposed George Bush's misadventure more than a decade ago but the invasion was backed by most Arab regimes), Erdogan said on Saturday: "If the ones coming from tens of thousands of miles away and entering Iraq could be seen as right, we could not remain as though our hands are tied regarding Syria, with whom we share a 910-kilometer-long border. We could not just be spectators. We have to do what is needed, and we will do it."
Read Gul's October 2003 comments, which expressed similar sentiments at that time. Iraq was a burning issue at the OIC meeting and I insisted on asking Mr Gul a few questions when I spotted him chatting with a group of Turkish journalists. (Accompanying him was Ambassador Namik Tan, based at the Foreign Ministry in Ankara at that time.)
I had a pretty good story, and it was exclusive.
The tone of Gul's response was as much remarkable as his words. One could see how frustrated he was with OIC members talking uselessly while the situation in Iraq demanded a clear, strong response.
In Syria today, you can see unspeakable death and destruction and countries located thousands of kilometers away want this macabre Assad show to continue.
As the dire humanitarian situation gets worse, some countries -- both within the region and in faraway locations -- are busy playing their usual nonsense politics.
And the Arab states that are supposed to help the anti-Assad forces seem to be listening more to their patron-manipulators like the US and France than doing what is right for regional peace.
Such ambiguous behavior from these countries doesn't help Turkey, which is willing to take decisive steps to end the misery of apocalyptic proportions in Syria.
