In August 2011, Ahmet Davutoğlu, Turkey’s then foreign minister, made a “mercy dash” to Damascus. He appealed to Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, to stop killing his people and talk to his opponents after months of protests. Davutoğlu spoke for Turkey but also, indirectly, for the west. His message: it’s not too late to call a halt; the alternative is civil war. But Assad turned him down flat.
In Istanbul the following year, he urged the US, Britain and other countries to prevent a humanitarian “disaster”. The west failed to act decisively, 500,000 or more Syrians are dead, 13.3 million are displaced. Meanwhile, half a world away, history repeats itself. Is Myanmar the new Syria?
Once again, those who could stop it don’t. Once again, UN alarm bells ring, warning of…
