Retired Col. Douglas MacGregor, a former Pentagon adviser, said Türkiye may be pulled into the current conflict led by Israel in the Middle East, admitting that his country armed terrorist group the PKK in Syria for attacks on Türkiye.
Speaking in an interview with a YouTube channel of former jurist Andrew Napolitano last week, MacGregor, a Conservative commentator who was nominated for several posts under the Donald Trump administration, claimed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tried to stay out of the Palestine-Israel conflict, "however much he signaled his distaste or contempt for Israel and what it is doing.” He said Erdoğan was aware of the destabilizing situation and noted that the United States, for some time, has been preparing forces in Syria to “attack Turkey,” referring to the PKK/YPG which received constant military support from Washington under the pretext of fight against Daesh in Türkiye’s southern neighbor.
“They have been encouraged to arm up and conduct direct assaults over the Turkish border into Turkey. Turks know this and they are very upset about it. We’ve done this periodically in the past. This time, it’s gotten very serious. You’ve seen very well-armed Arab tribesmen assault our bases in Syria,” he said, referring to recent clashes with Arab tribes in areas seized from them by PKK in Syria’s Deir Az-Zour.
“We have a larger war developing and Israelis are part of it. We are part of it. Turks are on the brink of admitting to this and going public with it. If they go public with it in a rather major way, the demand of the Turkish population will be to attack and that is something Erdoğan still does not want,” MacGregor said.
