After the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and far left-wingers, the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has been considered as the greatest threat to the national security of Turkey. Besides, the ruling government of President Bashar Al-Assad is also considered an enemy for Turkey.

Now the question is why Turkey considers ISIL a national threat or whether or not Turkey’s stance vis-a-vis ISIL has changed after Ankara joined the so-called anti-ISIL coalition.

What initially changed Turkey’s policy was a suicide attack in the Turkish southeastern city of Suruc, which killed 32 socialist youths, who have gathered to collect aid for the people of Kobani (Ein Al-Arab). The suicide bombing had great impacts on the public opinion. This helped introduce ISIL as a national threat, and measures, albeit symbolic, were taken against the terror group.

Prior to the bombing, Turkey and ISIL had an unwritten alliance. What Ankara tried to do was taking a pragmatic approach in bombing PKK and Syria’s Democratic Union Party (PYD) positions, and target ISIL hideouts and pressure the Damascus government with the support of the United States and NATO.

Through this unwritten alliance, Turkey made instrumental use of ISIL in Syria to (a) weaken the Kurds and the PKK in the city of Kobani (Ein Al-Arab) and (b) to use ISIL to besiege Kurdish guerrilla forces’ positions.

To this end, Turkey embarked on providing ISIL with weaponry and ammunitions through trailers and also dispatching extremists to Syria on buses. It also provided the terrorist group with financial aid.

------ United States and Turkey in anti-ISIL coalition

Turkey joined the anti-ISIL coalition to both strengthen unity and also fight against the PKK, PYD, Syria, and ISIL.

The priorities of the United State and Turkey in the anti-ISIL coalition however differ from one another. The first priority of the U.S. was purported to be to fight against ISIL and Turkey’s was to fight the Syrian government. Initially, the United States asked Turkey to join the international coalition against ISIL. However, the outcome of a security meeting attended by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was that Ankara did not intend to intervene militarily, rather it sought to dispatch humanitarian aid.

Turkey claimed the reason for its opposition to join the military alliance was that 49 Turkish nationals were held hostage by ISIL, who were later swapped with a number of ISIL prisoners. Yet in fact, ISIL was active throughout Turkey and some Turkish citizens had also joined the terrorist group. Four hundred Turkish nationals alone, who had joined the ISIL and were killed in battles in Syria, were buried in the Turkish city of Adiyaman. Later, Turkey announced it would join the coalition under four conditions of (a) creating a safe zone, (b) creating a buffer zone, (c) helping moderate forces, and (d) toppling the Syrian political system.

Turkey has now reassessed these conditions and has rearranged its priorities.

---------- Turkey’s objectives

Internally, Turkey seeks to inflame nationalist sentiments through fighting ISIL in order to use it for the November elections.

At a regional level, Turkey is making instrumental use of ISIL to prevent the integration of Turkish Kurds with those in Syria and Iraq. Turkey would be the last country to change its mind regarding the toppling of the Syrian government.

At an international level, Turkey needs to fix its image as a crisis-hit country. In an article published by the Washington Post, Davutoglu wrote of the necessity of fighting ISIL within the framework of international regulations, claiming that Turkey would weaken and eventually destroy ISIL through cleansing its borders of the extremist elements. At the same time, he said, we would keep on supporting ‘moderate’ opposition forces in Syria.

MD/PA