Some interesting talk in this Sputnik article-
Alarmed by US plans to redraw the borders of the Middle East, Turkey's activities in Iraq, and willingness to align forces with Russia and the Syria government, are an effort to prevent Washington from realizing its ambitions, former Turkish air force commander Erdogan Karakus told Sputnik Turkiye. "The US is trying to implement its project in the Middle East, called 'Greater Middle East,' and it's trying to use the Iraqi government to carry out this aim. However, Turkey's actions in Iraq are interfering with the US attempt to establish sole control over the whole of Iraq," Karakus said.
"At the moment Turkey is trying to agree with Russia, and with the support of Russian armed forces and those of the Syrian government, to carry out an operation to liberate Raqqa. This scenario would preserve the integrity of Syria and allow the Syrian government to control large areas of territory. In turn, this will be a blow to the US Greater Middle East project."
"Otherwise, if Ankara isn't able to agree with Moscow and Damascus, it will suffer great losses. Turkey has begun to understand that and is obviously making every effort to join forces with the Russian and Syrian forces," Karakus said.
Raqqa has been covered at length in several recent previous posts:
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Allies Resist US Plan to Attack Raqqa?? What's Going On Here???
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Conveniently: ISIS Plotting External Attacks “against the west” from within Raqqa, Syria
The US Led Middle East Remake has been openly discussed here for years:Vitaly Churkin has openly mentioned the US Middle East Remake Russia at UNSC: US Decision To Reshape Middle East is the Original Cause of Syria's Suffering
Vitaly Churkin: "The grave tragedy that befell the Syrian people is in its sixth year. In 2011, Washington and some other Western capitals decided to continue reshaping the geopolitical space of the Middle East and North Africa, which started with the US and UK criminal invasion in Iraq in 2003. Besides, both in Libya and Syria, they continued to “swing an axe”, not shunning away from the support of terrorist groups. The inevitable implications, including break-up of countries and millions of refugees, were written off as an unforeseen “irritant”"
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