Gavrilo Princip was a member of a Serbian terrorist movement called “The Black Hand,” which fought against the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s rule. On June 28, 1914, Princip shot the empire’s crown prince, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie to death, an act which precipitated World War I.

Will Russia declare war on Turkey over the assassination of its ambassador, Andrey Karlov, in Ankara on Monday? That’s unlikely. All signs, both from the Turkish capital and from Moscow, indicate at the moment that both sides are attempting to minimize the extent of the damage, including holding the talks that are scheduled to take place in the city on Wednesday in a bid to try and find a solution for the Syrian crisis.

In fact, there is no need to start a war: It has already broken out a long time ago, and Russia and Turkey are deeply involved in it—from both sides of the barricade. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Islamist Turkish tyrant, believed at the beginning of his reign that he would be able to establish an Islamic arc throughout the entire Middle East—which would include Iran, Syria and Egypt—but when the civil war in Syria began, he realized that he must take a stand in the growing rift between the Sunnis and the Shiites. He then jumped in with both feet to stand up against the barbaric massacre carried out by Syrian President Bashar Assad in order to maintain his rule.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, on his part, found a golden opportunity in the civil war in Syria to reassume the position of a world power in our explosive region. He dispatched forces to the region in a cynical game with a double objective. First of all, to physically destroy the moderate and secular forces fighting Assad, so that the only alternative would be the jihad movements, and so the world would make a clear choice in favor of the incumbent president, the lesser of two evils. Second, to make Iran and Hezbollah, which are yearning for Assad’s survival, dependent on the Kremlin.

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