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After a year of playing a muted role within the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS, Turkey is now actively engaged in airstrikes against the terror group. But ISIS isn't Turkey's only target.

Turkey is genuinely concerned about the terror threat bubbling away on its border, but ISIS has also given President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a convenient cover to crack down on Ankara's long-time nemesis: Kurdish rebels from the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK).

Erdogan is now waging parallel campaigns -- one against ISIS, and one against PKK rebels in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq. The strikes on PKK targets have brought an end to a two-year ceasefire between Turkey and Kurdish rebels, prompting the latter to cry foul.…  Seguir leyendo »

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When Turkey finally agreed to join U.S.-led efforts to fight Islamic State, Ankara was supposed to make the battle against the extremist group more effective. Yet within days, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, bombed not just Islamic State forces but also, with even greater fervor, the one group showing some success in keeping them at bay: the Kurds.

The United States miscalculated by bringing in Erdogan. Turkey’s embattled and volatile leader looks far less interested in combating Islamic State than in reclaiming his power at home. Erdogan’s personal agenda, however, cannot be allowed to alienate U.S. partners and prolong the conflict.…  Seguir leyendo »

A left-wing militant clashes with police last week in Istanbul after Turkey's military carried out strikes in Syria and northern Iraq. (Yasin Akgul/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)

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Viewed as a snapshot, the situation in Syria and Iraq may lead one to hopelessness and despair. But as a professor of history, diplomat and politician, I know that history flows in consequential frames that make sense only once they can be seen as a whole.

In trying to address the many seemingly insurmountable challenges to Turkey’s south, we must bear this truth in mind.

To the south of its borders, Turkey is faced with multiple grave threats to its national security. In Syria, hundreds of thousands are dead and many millions displaced — including almost 2 million in Turkey — while the illegitimate regime in Damascus and the terrorist organization Daesh (also known as ISIL, among other names) compete as to who can display more outright barbarism.…  Seguir leyendo »

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First, the good news. After months of dithering, the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has given his approval for America to use the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey to mount air strikes against Islamic State (Isil) positions across the border in Syria.

Nearly a year after coalition planes began bombing Isil forces in Syria and Iraq, there is already much excitement being expressed in Washington that the Turkish decision could prove to be a game-changer in the campaign to defeat the Islamist menace. It will allow coalition forces to monitor more closely Turkey’s 500-mile border with Syria, which has been the main conduit through which Isil has smuggled arms and recruits, as well as enabling American warplanes to respond more quickly against likely Isil targets.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Last Friday, Turkey joined the war against Islamic State, the terrorist-run entity that now controls eastern Syria and western Iraq. After four years of leaving the border open for supplies and recruits to reach Islamic State, the Turkish government sent planes to bomb three Islamic State targets in Syria.

At the same time, Ankara ended a four-year ban on its anti-Islamic State “coalition” allies using the huge Incirlik airbase near the Syrian border. There was rejoicing in Washington, since coalition aircraft (mostly American) will now be much closer to Islamic State targets in Syria, and Turkey will also presumably close its border with Syria at last.…  Seguir leyendo »

Turkish troops patrol the Syrian border as airstrikes begin. EPA/Deniz Toprak

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Between 03.40 and 03.53 on July 24, three Turkish F-16 jets bombed three Islamic State targets in Syria. This was the first time the Turkish military has taken direct action against the terrorist group.

As the airstrikes began, Turkish police arrested a large number of suspected IS sympathisers across the state. The Turkish government has also opened the strategically important Incirlik airbase to Western allies engaged in the bombing campaign against IS. US officials have called this a “game-changer”. Turkey, a key Middle Eastern state and NATO ally, has formally joined the coalition against IS.

But the decision to get involved, after months of international pressure, has not been made entirely out of a sense of obligation.…  Seguir leyendo »

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A medida que el grupo militante del Estado Islámico ha avanzado por Irak y Siria, han quedado desbaratadas las alianzas regionales tradicionales, durante mucho tiempo moldeadas por las potencias occidentales. Particularmente trascendental es la lucha del presidente de Turquía, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, para conciliar la relación de su país con la OTAN con su prestigio como principal protector del islam suní.

La renuencia del Gobierno de Turquía a unirse a la coalición contra los combatientes suníes del Estado Islámico, encabezada por Estados Unidos, le ha aislado de las otras potencias árabes suníes, como, por ejemplo, Arabia Saudí, que se han unido a la coalición.…  Seguir leyendo »

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A medida que el grupo militante del Estado Islámico ha avanzado por el Iraq y Siria, las alianzas regionales tradicionales, durante mucho tiempo moldeadas por las potencias occidentales, han quedado desbaratadas. Particularmente transcendental es la lucha del Presidente de Turquía, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, para conciliar la relación de su país con la OTAN con su prestigio como principal protector del islam suní.

La renuencia del Gobierno de Turquía a unirse a la coalición contra los combatientes suníes del Estado Islámico, encabezada por los Estados Unidos, lo ha aislado de las otras potencias árabes suníes, como, por ejemplo, Arabia Saudí, que se han unido a la coalición.…  Seguir leyendo »

Kurdish refugees near Turkey's border with Syria on Oct. 26, as smoke rises over Kobani in the distance. Credit Yannis Behrakis/Reuters

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Since Sept. 15, we, the people of the Syrian town of Kobani, have been fighting, outnumbered and outgunned, against an all-out assault by the army of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

Yet despite a campaign that has intensified in the past month, including the deployment of United States-made tanks and armored vehicles, the Islamic State has not been able to break the resistance of Kobani’s fighters.

We are defending a democratic, secular society of Kurds, Arabs, Muslims and Christians who all face an imminent massacre.

Kobani’s resistance has mobilized our entire society, and many of its leaders, including myself, are women.…  Seguir leyendo »

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“Nations do behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives,” the Israeli diplomat Abba Eban once quipped. The Turkish government finally seems to be doing so in Kobani, the northern Syrian city besieged by the Islamic State — after trying everything else. Turkey is now helping Kobani’s defenders after standing, literally, on the sidelines for weeks as a battle raged just across the border.

As Kobani was encircled by Islamic State forces, despite air strikes by the United States and its allies, Turkey, a NATO ally, had tanks positioned only a few miles away. Why, many wondered, did Turkey do nothing to help the secular Kurdish fighters defend themselves against brutal religious fanatics?…  Seguir leyendo »

Syrian Kurdish refugees from Kobani at a camp in Suruc, on the Turkey-Syria border. Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

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The plight of the small town of Kobani has become the focus of the world’s attention amid the devastation and misery of Syria. With each day the reign of terror of Islamic State (Isis) has been moving too close for comfort.

It’s worth remembering that Kobani was not Isis’s first target – the extremists have overrun a vast terrain from Azzaz in Syria to Kirkuk in Iraq. Just as they have been driving the Kurds out of Kobani they have killed, intimidated and driven Turkomans out of Çobanbey on the Turkish border; Arabs in Raqqa, Deir Ezzor and Mosul; Yazidis in Sinjar; and Christians in Aleppo.…  Seguir leyendo »

Smoke rises from the Syrian town of Kobani, seen from the Turkish-Syrian border in Suruc, Turkey. Kurdish forces urged a U.S.-led coalition to escalate air strikes on Islamic State fighters who tightened their grip on the Syrian town. (Getty Images)

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Turkish-American relations reached their nadir last week. Turkey's failure to take a definitive stance on Islamic State has unleashed a torrent of criticism in Western media of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government. Vice President Joe Biden set the tone for Washington's frustration with his off-the-cuff remarks at Harvard insinuating that Turkey had earlier lent support to Islamic State. Erdogan declared that Biden would be “history to me” unless he apologized. Despite Biden's apology, pundits have piled on to accuse Turkey of choosing Islamic State militants over the Kurds of Syria, and some even suggest ousting it from NATO.

The inaction of Ankara, Turkey's capital, on Islamic State holds a mirror to Washington's own inability to act definitively in the Middle East.…  Seguir leyendo »

Turkish tanks on guard at the Turkey-Syria border. Photograph: Sedat Suna/EPA

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Turkey feels as if it’s reliving an old nightmare. Each morning television presenters and newspaper headlines glumly round up news from the Islamic State (Isis) siege of the Syrian Kurdish town Kobani, and its spillover into Turkey. three Riots, tear gas, and live fire this week have killed more than 20 people in cities in Turkey’s Kurdish south-east. There have been multiple arson attacks on cars, buses and trucks, ethnic tensions, street corner nationalist gangs, curfews and armed troop deployments unseen since the miserable years of all-out Turkish Kurd insurgency in the 1990s.

At the same time politicians have begun shrilly pouring doubt on the vital, nine-year-old peace process between the Turkish government and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) insurgents.…  Seguir leyendo »

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With the Islamic State just miles from its border, Turkey is now facing its most severe security challenge in decades. In response, the Turkish government is seeking to accomplish the impossible; Ankara wants to fight the Islamic State, carry out regime change in Syria and roll back Kurdish autonomy all at the same time.

The risk of this overambitious approach is that it could end up accomplishing none of these objectives while squandering the opportunity to contribute to the stabilization of the region. Underpinning this risky strategy is a questionable assumption and an equally dubious policy decision.

Turkey assumes that remaining indifferent to the fate of the besieged Kurdish enclave of Kobani will not imperil its peace negotiations with Turkey’s own Kurds.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Following the recent safe return of 46 Turkish hostages held by the Islamic State, hopes were raised in the United States that Turkey would finally commit to joining the U.S.-led coalition now fighting the group. But Turkey’s willingness to contribute to the coalition remains constrained by the legacy of its ill-fated Syria policy, as well as by a fundamental strategic disconnect between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration.

Since Syria’s civil war began three years ago, Turkey has provided logistical and financial support to virtually all elements of the Syrian opposition, while allowing them to use Turkish territory to regroup after launching military operations across the border.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Last week, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declared that Turkey is ready “for any cooperation in the fight against terrorism.” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu argued that Islamic State militants pose a greater threat to Turkey and the Muslim world than to the West.

But Turkey’s dilemma is far more grave than its leaders realize. Indeed, Turkey’s current situation resembles the early years of Pakistan’s sponsorship of the Taliban. The Islamic State is recruiting militants in Turkey. And failure to clean its own house now could lead Turkey down the path of “Pakistanization,” whereby a resident jihadist infrastructure causes Sunni extremism to ingrain itself deeply within the fabric of society.…  Seguir leyendo »

Turkish soldiers helping Kurdish families fleeing the fighting in Syria. Credit Bulent Kilic/Associated Press

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My generation of Turks grew up hating Kurdish separatists. Instead of questioning why Kurds weren’t allowed to speak their own language, live in their own villages or sing their own songs, we blamed the Kurdistan Workers Party, or P.K.K., which had been waging a guerrilla war against Turkey since 1984, for all of Turkey’s woes. Kurds were responsible for the death of our soldiers, we said. They were guilty of tearing up the country, draining our resources and siding with our enemies. In the mainstream press, they were simply “baby killers.”

Over the past few decades, that view started to soften as the history of human rights abuses committed in Turkey’s Kurdish regions was revealed.…  Seguir leyendo »

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El reciente regreso sanos y salvos de 46 rehenes turcos del Estado Islámico generó en Estados Unidos esperanzas de que finalmente Turquía se comprometa a unirse a la coalición internacional que ahora combate a la milicia islámica. Pero la voluntad turca de sumarse todavía debe superar dos escollos: la herencia de la desafortunada política de Ankara hacia Siria y una desconexión estratégica fundamental entre los gobiernos de Recep Tayyip Erdoğan y Barack Obama.

Desde el comienzo de la guerra civil siria, hace tres años, Turquía proveyó apoyo logístico y financiero a casi todos los elementos de la oposición siria, y les permitió usar el territorio turco para reagruparse tras sus operaciones militares al otro lado de la frontera.…  Seguir leyendo »

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On Saturday, Turkey woke up to happy news: The 49 Turks held hostage in Iraq by the Islamic State for 101 days had finally been released. When they arrived in Ankara with a delegation headed by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, the survivors were welcomed by family members who had feared that they would never see them again.

The hostages were captured by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, on June 10, when the terrorist group occupied the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and raided the Turkish Consulate, the last remaining diplomatic mission there.

How the release was achieved has not been fully disclosed yet.…  Seguir leyendo »