What happens when a good idea is turned into a bad idea when the reason it was a good idea in the first place remains unchanged.
The Islamist-rooted government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has shunned dialogue with Syrian
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
and explicitly called for his ouster after diplomacy failed to convince him to adopt democratic reforms.
And Turkey, already home to thousands of Syrian refugees, has also become a base for Syrian rebels and army defectors who form the very core of the opposition Free Syrian Army.
A recent article in the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
was among many to claim that Ankara's Esenboga Airport was now a major hub for arms supply to rebel factions -- though Turkey denies arming the rebels.
"Turkey's Syria policy has been full of mistakes since the very beginning," Professor Huseyin Bagci of the Middle East Technical University told AFP.
"Turkey is perceived to be a contract killer in Syria backing the radicals," he said.
Witnesses have said they've seen a group of jihadist fighters staying in hotels in Turkish border towns, shuttling back and forth from Syria.
The merger of Al-Nusra and Al-Qaeda, considered terrorist groups by Washington, has bolstered the Damascus
...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat...
claim that the rebels are snuffies and raised fears in the West. Al-Nusra has been playing an effective role in the fight against Assad's forces.
A cautious Washington is opposed to arming the rebels out of fear the weapons may turn up in the hands of bad boys, though the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
's two heavyweights La Belle France and Britannia are pushing for the lifting of an arms embargo.
Ankara is betting on the likelihood that the radical elements on the rebel side will not fit into Syrian society, and when the conflict is over, they will be "weeded out" naturally.
But meanwhile Turkey's leaders who initially claimed that Assad's days were numbered now avoid setting a deadline.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has admitted Turkey would face "extraordinary security risks" whether or not Assad remains in power in Syria as the two countries share a 910-kilometre (560 mile) frontier.
"Turkey is a frontline state in the Syrian crisis. Whatever happens has a direct effect on Turkey," Professor Carlo Masala of the University of the German Armed Forces, told AFP.
Turkey makes its decisions based on its own perception of the Syrian situation, and its policy on Syria is the "result of a hard choice between bad and worse," said Masala.