Turkey cannot deter new attacks and earn Vladimir Putin’s compromises simply by bombing Bashar Assad’s forces.

I note this point in light of the dozens of reprisal strikes President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has authorized since Thursday’s killing of 33 Turkish soldiers by Syrian warplanes. Conducted with Russian authorization, that Syrian attack aimed to end Erdogan’s resistance against the ongoing Assad-Russian-Iranian axis offensive in Idlib governorate. That offensive aims to crush the last major redoubt of the rebellion that has been fighting Assad since 2011. Alongside the pressure on Erdogan, the Russians are orchestrating the targeting of hospitals and schools to crush Idlib’s morale and pressure Turkey with new refugee flows up to its borders.