Turkey & ISIL: Friends, foes or frenemies?

A prominent Arab writer has explored the possible motives behind what he calls Turkey’s “U-turn” regarding the Takfiri ISIL terrorist group, implicitly questioning the genuineness of Ankara’s apparent shift in policy.

In an article published in Arabic paper Rai al-Youm, Palestinian-born author Abdel Bari Atwan, discussed Turkey’s recent move to start targeting purported ISIL positions in Syria.

Ankara’s shift in its position toward ISIL comes just days after a series of attacks, including a bomb blast that targeted and killed about 32 people from the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations (SGDF), who had gathered to help with the reconstruction of the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, destroyed by ISIL militants.

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Atwan said Ankara’s policy change, which is “fraught with danger,” poses a threat to the country’s stability, security, and economy.

He added that Turkey may now witness a rise in terrorist attacks on its soil, including its tourist attractions, which may also become catastrophic for the country’s economy.

The author highlighted Ankara’s refusal to recognize ISIL militants as terrorists in the past, adding that it was even accused of arming and training the terrorists.

He added that Turkey’s recent shift comes as it had previously made every effort to help foreign-backed militants topple the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Ankara, Atwan said, had been in an “unspoken truce” with the militants since last year, when nearly 50 of its nationals were taken hostage by ISIL. They were released in September 2014.

He said the reasoning behind Ankara’s latest actions may be to please Western powers, who have been denying Turkey entrance into the European Union (EU).

Turkey has also been interested in a 90-kilometer (56 mile) no-fly zone along its border with Syria, an issue it recently discussed with the United States, apparently aimed at preventing Kurdish militants from establishing what Ankara fears to be an independent state.

He said Turkey has itself been dealing with internal instability, with the government’s Justice and Development Party not being able to gain a majority in recent elections in the country and failing to form a working coalition.

ISIL has been operating inside Syria and Iraq. The militants currently control areas in both countries, where they have killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Mark Glenn, with the Crescent & Cross Solidarity Movement, told Press TV, “The US, NATO, Israel, and the West would like to have used Turkey as the shock troops in the front line in going into the region and under the pretext of fighting the terrorists of ISIL… as a means of destabilizing Syria.”

“Of course, the thing that we have to keep in mind all along is that these groups ISIS and ISIL, they would be absolutely no threat to any nation state in the region, were it not for the fact that they are being supplied militarily, financially, and logistically by America, Israel, and the West,” he said.

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