Yes, 3000 Syrian troops as per the article. And yes the whole Arab Spring business was to take over the entire north Africa area up to Turkey and hand it all over to Erdogan. There are pictures of obama fawning as in worship to Erdogan who, besides working to revive the ottoman caliphate, sees himself as the leader of all Islam and his followers for a good while now have been calling him the Mahdi.  The picture https://iadsb.tmgrup.com.tr/bbab0c/0/0/0/0/0/0?u=https://idsb.tmgrup.com.tr/gallery/politics/erdogan-obama-meeting-tops-g20-summit-in-turkey/13.jpg&mw=1600