An ISIS coup against Turkey
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/ Friday, 24 July 2015
The official Turkish version is reasonable, unlike what skeptics might believe. The Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) is most probably behind the bombing in the Southeastern Suruc town, which left more than thirty victims dead. The organization’s activity is not a surprise. The U.S. president seized the opportunity to call his Turkish counterpart and convince him to stop the flow of fighters across the borders towards Syria. This urges the review of events and raises the following question: What is it that went wrong?
In fact, Turkey’s stance against the Syrian regime was normal, until things got more complicated over time. For the first 18 months, the situation in Syria was a pure uprising; Syrian youth took up arms in response to the regime’s massacres. Ankara’s position was in favor of the opposition’s activities, which was formed from several local groups under the umbrella of the coalition and the Free Syrian Army. By the end of the second year, the regime was teetering; it lost many major cities, and the outskirts of the capital Damascus were experiencing nightly battles between the two sides. After the second year, two events happened simultaneously: The first was that Syria started to represent a serious issue in the Muslim world, similar to the tragedy of Bosnia in the 90s because of the killings and vast destruction perpetrated by the regime. It instigated outrage against worldwide unresponsiveness, failure of mediation without sanctions, and the refusal to arm the opposition. The second event was the military interference of Iran and its allies in Syria to support the collapsing regime in Damascus. Jihadist fighters started to flow from both sides.
When Iranian aircrafts were transporting fighters, along with thousands of Iraqi and Lebanese militias crossing the borders, fighters were also crossing from the Turkish front to fight against the regime. Thus, Syria turned into an attractive magnet and a hub for regional and sectarian war. The West saw it as a war within the Muslim camp and felt it had nothing to do with it. Turkey turned a blind eye on fighters sneaking through its borders to support the Syrian revolution, and then supported the lesser of two evils: the al-Nusra Front, as its criticizers claim. Al-Nusra is just another organization affiliated to al-Qaeda, but without videos showing the slaughter of hostages. Ankara thought that it can only face Iraqi, Lebanese, Afghan and Iranian jihadist militias with similar groups like ISIS and al-Nusra. This erroneous thinking weakened and led to overlooking the opposition: The FSA and similar forces, which did not resort to religious slogans, because they had a national political issue that represented most Syrians.
Playing with fire
Of course, those who know the profile of al-Qaeda will be able to predict the end of ISIS. Similarly to al-Qaeda, ISIS started kidnapping and killing Westerners. It played with fire and rallied enemies that are much stronger than itself. This is what characterizes terrorist organizations: they have neither national nor moral boundaries. They are mere destructive groups that believe to be able to defeat the whole world, paving their way to paradise. Ankara was also involved in the regional conflicts and the chaos of the Arab Spring. Despite all that, Turkey remains the only country capable of bringing changes in Syria.
The coup of ISIS and al-Nusra against Turkey is not surprising, because the organization was trapped in the corner when thousands of fighters were prohibited from crossing the Turkish borders, and its online websites were banned. We should not forget that ISIS, which achieved great victories, has also fulfilled the Syrian and Iranian regimes’ wills; sabotaging the revolution, tarnishing the image of the Syrian national movement, and damaging the camp that stood against the two regimes, such as Turkey and the Gulf states. Despite all the chaos and pressures, I believe that Ankara, like the rest of the regional governments, is in the midst of a battle of balances. It cannot leave its southern neighbor Syria under the control of Iran, especially after the signing of the nuclear deal that lifted all sanctions on the Iranian regime, because such a deal will increase Iran’s confidence to pursue further expansion in the region. Turkey can re-establish its ties with Syrian national forces because they are fighting for a real and legitimate issue that the world cannot ignore.
Turkey-U.S. Airbase Deal Envisages Syria No-Fly Zone
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/24 July/15/A landmark deal between Turkey and the United States for U.S. warplanes to use a Turkish airbase to attack Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria foresees a no-fly zone along part of the Syrian border, a report said Friday. The agreement for U.S. planes to use Incirlik base in southern Turkey envisages a 90-kilometer (56 mile) no-fly zone between the Syrian towns of Marea and Jarabulus to the east, the Hurriyet daily said. The no-fly zone would back up a planned safe zone on the ground that would extend up to 50 kilometers (31 miles)inside Syria. The safe zone would aim at preventing infiltration by IS and other jihadists to discourage a new flow of refugees to Turkey, it said.
The agreement comes after months of negotiations between Ankara and Washington. U.S. officials had grown increasingly frustrated over Turkey’s reluctance to play a full role in the coalition against IS, including the use of Incirlik. But a deadly suicide bombing in a Turkish border town blamed on IS followed by border clashes appear to have hardened Ankara’s policy. Turkish warplanes on Friday for the first time bombed IS targets in Syria. Where necessary, U.S.-led coalition forces could conduct reconnaissance and assault operations in the area, Hurriyet said. “U.S. planes equipped with bombs and missiles will be able to use the Incirlik Air Base” for raids against IS, the agreement says according to Hurriyet. Turkey could back up the air raids with artillery.
War planes of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad will not be able to enter the no-fly zone and will be targeted if they do so, it said. The agreement does not foresee the arrival of any American ground troops in Turkey but an additional contingent of up to 50 U.S. military staff will be allowed in for technical support. The agreement only covers use of the Incirlik air base, which is close to the city of Adana just east of the Syrian border. But U.S. warplanes will be able to use the Batman, Diyarbakir and Malatya air bases in eastern Turkey in the event of an emergency, it said. Without giving a precise date, Hurriyet said the Incirlik base would be opened for the U.S. forces to use in raids on Syria “very soon”.
Turkey Detains over 250 Suspected Militants
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/24 July/15/Turkey on Friday detained 251 people in coordinated nationwide dawn raids against suspected Islamic State (IS) jihadists and Kurdish militants following a wave of deadly violence in the country, the prime minister’s office said. “A total of 251 people were taken into detention for belonging to terrorist groups,” the statement said, adding that the raids took place in 13 provinces across Turkey. It said that the arrests had been made following violent attacks against members of the public and the armed forces in recent days. Reports said police raided addresses in several Istanbul districts in search of members of IS, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and other militant groups. The Dogan news agency said that 140 addresses were raided in 26 districts in Istanbul alone, in a giant operation involving some 5,000 police.
As well as IS and the PKK, the operation targeted suspected members of the PKK’s youth wing the The Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H) and the Marxist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party Front (DHKP-C), the state Anatolia agency said. The raids came after 32 people were killed in a suicide bombing Monday in a Turkish town on the Syrian border, blamed on IS. This sparked an upsurge in violence in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast, where many accuse the Turkish authorities of collaborating with IS, accusations Ankara denies. Two police were shot dead in southeast Turkey close to the Syrian border on Wednesday, in an attack claimed by the PKK’s military wing which said it wanted to avenge the Suruc bombing. On Thursday, another policeman was killed in the majority Kurdish city of Diyarbakir. Meanwhile, YDG-H claimed it had shot dead an alleged former IS fighter in Istanbul late Tuesday.
Turkish Warplanes Bomb IS Targets in Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/24 July/15/ Turkish fighter jets early Friday bombed positions of Islamic State jihadists inside Syria for the first time, in a dramatic escalation of fighting after the killing of a Turkish soldier in cross-border clashes. Three Turkish F-16s took off from the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir for an early morning bombing raid against three IS targets, dropping four guided bombs, a statement from the prime minister’s office said. The operation came after the first major cross-border clashes between Turkey and IS jihadists on Thursday left one Turkish soldier and one militant dead, thrusting Turkey into an open conflict with the Islamists. The bombing raid was the first by the Turkish air force on IS since the Islamists began their advance across Iraq and Syria in 2013, seizing control of swathes of territory right up to the Turkish border.
