by Daniel Pipes
The battle in Iraq
consists of Turkish-backed Sunni jihadis rebelling against an
Iranian-backed Shiite-oriented central government, I wrote in a recent article.
Some readers question
that the Republic of Turkey has supported the Islamic State in Iraq and
the Levant (ISIS), the main Sunni group fighting in Iraq. They point to
ISIS attacks on Turkish interests, within Turkey, along its border with Syria, and in Mosul and a successful recent meeting of the Turkish and Iranian presidents. Good points, but they can be explained.
First, ISIS is willing
to accept Turkish support even while seeing the Islamist prime minister
and his countrymen as kafirs (infidels) who need to be shown true Islam.
Second, the
presidential visit took place on one level while the fighting in Syria
and Iraq took place on quite another; the two can occur simultaneously. Turkish-Iranian rivalry is on the rise and, as the distinguished Turkish journalist Burak Bekdil
notes in the current issue of the Middle East Quarterly: "Recent years
have often seen official language from the two countries about
prospering bilateral trade and common anti-Israeli ideological
solidarity. But mostly out of sight have been indications of rivalry,
distrust, and mutual sectarian suspicion between the two Muslim
countries."
Ankara may deny helping ISIS, but the evidence for this is overwhelming.
"As we have the longest border with Syria," writes Orhan Kemal Cengiz,
a Turkish newspaper columnist, "Turkey's support was vital for the
jihadists in getting in and out of the country." Indeed, the ISIS strongholds not coincidentally cluster close to Turkey's frontiers.
Kurds, academic experts and the Syrian opposition agree that Syrians, Turks (estimated to number 3,000),
and foreign fighters (especially Saudis but also a fair number of
Westerners) have crossed the Turkish-Syrian border at will, often to
join ISIS. What Turkish journalist Kadri Gursel
calls a "two-way jihadist highway," has no bothersome border checks and
sometimes involves the active assistance of Turkish intelligence
services. CNN even broadcast a video on "The Secret Jihadi Smuggling Route Through Turkey."
Actually, the Turks
offered far more than an easy border crossing: They provided the bulk of
ISIS' funds, logistics, training and arms. Turkish residents near the
Syrian border tell of Turkish ambulances
going to Kurdish-ISIS battle zones and then evacuating ISIS casualties
to Turkish hospitals. Indeed, a sensational photograph has surfaced
showing ISIS commander Abu Muhammad in a hospital bed receiving treatment for battle wounds in Hatay State Hospital in April.
One Turkish opposition politician estimates that Turkey has paid $800 million to ISIS for oil shipments. Another politician released information about active-duty Turkish soldiers training ISIS members. Critics note that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has met three times with Yasin al-Qadi, who has close ties to ISIS and has funded it.
Why the Turkish support
for wild-eyed extremists? Because Ankara wants to eliminate two Syrian
polities, the Assad regime in Damascus and Rojava (the emerging Kurdish
state) in the northeast.
Regarding the Assad
regime: "Thinking that jihadists would ensure a quick fall for the Assad
regime in Syria, Turkey, no matter how vehemently officials deny it,
supported the jihadists," writes Cengiz, "at first along with Western
and some Arab countries and later in spite of their warnings."
Regarding Rojava:
Rojava's leadership being aligned with the PKK, the (formerly)
terrorist Kurdish group based in Turkey, the authoritative Turkish
journalist Amberin Zaman has little doubt "that until recently, Turkey
was allowing jihadist fighters to move unhindered across its borders" to
fight the Kurds.
More broadly, as the Turkish analyst Mustafa Akyol
notes, Ankara thought "anybody who fought al-Assad was a good guy and
also harbored an "ideological uneasiness with accepting that Islamists
can do terrible things." This has led, he acknowledges, to "some
blindness" toward violent jihadists. Indeed, ISIS is so popular in
Turkey that others publicly copy its logo.
In the face of this support, the online newspaper Al-Monitor calls on Turkey to close its border to ISIS while Rojava threatened Ankara with "dire consequences" unless Turkish aid ceases.
In conclusion, Turkish
leaders are finding Syria a double quagmire, what with Assad still in
power and the Kurdish entity growing stronger. In reaction, they have
cooperated with even the most extreme, retrograde and vicious elements,
such as ISIS. But this support opened a second front in Iraq which, in
turn, brings the clash of the Middle East's two titans, Turkey and Iran,
closer to realization.
Daniel Pipes (DanielPipes.org) is president of the Middle East Forum.
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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