rudaw | Turkey has tolerated Islamic extremists crossing its border to
join the fight in Syria, but with the same Islamists now raising havoc
in Iraq Turkey may have to rethink its policy of aiding the militants,
analysts and activists say.
Last week, Turkey felt the direct impact of the turmoil in
Iraq, after its consulate in Mosul was taken over by insurgents and its
diplomats captured, only to be freed a day later.
“Radical Islamic groups, with the knowledge of the Turkish
intelligence service, recruit and send our young kids to the war in
Syria from border bases in Turkey’s Kurdish provinces,” charged Atilla
Yazar, head of the Urfa branch of Turkey’s Human Rights Association
(IHD).
“Now we hope that the Turks have realized how dangerous these
groups are, and that they'll stop supporting the anti-Kurdish groups and
engage in a dialogue with the Kurds in Syria.”
The insurgents – a dangerous league of Islamic militants and
loyalists from Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime and military – have seized
large portions of Sunni territories, including Tikrit, Anbar and parts
of Dyala province, halting only 100 kilometers from Baghdad.
Ankara has been accused of supporting the jihadists, which
includes the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), because they are
fighting the Bashar Assad regime in Syria.
Turkey, whose decade-long policy has been to keep a tight lid
on its own large minority Kurds, has also seen its interests served in
ISIS clashes with the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which has
unilaterally declared autonomy in Syria’s northwestern Kurdish regions.
"So far, militants from ISIS have been able to get treatment in
hospitals in Turkey and hold meetings there. Turkey tried using ISIS
against Assad and PYD,” explained Joost Jongerden, assistant professor
at Wageningen University in Netherlands.
According to Daniella Kuzmanovic, lecturer at Copenhagen
University and an expert on Turkey, Ankara’s cozy relations with the
jihadis may come to an end now.
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