Turkey gears up to join fight against Islamic State

Turkey is gearing up for a bigger role in the fight against Islamic State (IS), which could include sending Turkish troops into Syria and Iraq.

But counter-terrorism aside, Turkey’s leaders have less altruistic motive for getting involved: preventing independent- minded Syrian and Iraqi Kurds, who have links to Turkish Kurd separatists, from strengthening and exploiting their position as key western allies.

Speaking after meetings with the Obama administration and others at the UN general assembly in New York, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, said: "The logic that assumes Turkey would not take a position militarily is wrong."

He said negotiations were under way about a potential ground operation in tandem with US-led air strikes.

“You can’t finish off such a terrorist organisation only with air strikes. Ground forces are complementary. You have to look at it as a whole. If there’s no ground force, it would not be [a] permanent [solution],” Mr Erdogan said.

This week Turkey's parliament is expected to renew "hot pursuit" powers, allowing Turkish armed forces to enter Syria and Iraq. Mr Erdogan and prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu will meet military commanders to finalise a "road map" spelling out strategy, following the release this month of 46 Turkish hostages held by IS.

Buffer area

Ankara wants to set up a buffer area inside Syria, protected by a no-fly zone, in part to halt the flow of refugees. An estimated 1.5 million Syrians are now in Turkey, including 160,000 Syrian Kurds who fled the recent fighting with IS around Kobani.

Ankara is also concerned the international campaign against IS may bolster the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, whose resignation it has demanded.

But under pressure from the US, Turkish attitudes are hardening. Turkey had an "obligation to fight", Mr Erdogan said in Istanbul on Sunday. "All leaders, either in private talks or bilateral meetings, all said Turkey must be in," he added.

In separate remarks, Mr Davutoglu echoed Barack Obama and British prime minister David Cameron in terming IS "barbaric" and un-Islamic.

Direct Turkish military engagement and the creation of a Turkish-controlled buffer zone could curb growing Kurdish self-rule aspirations, which Ankara fears may inflame Turkey’s large Kurdish minority and possibly wreck the ceasefire with the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party .

Turkey has tried to prevent Turkish Kurds from crossing the border to help Syrian Kurds, prompting claims of collusion with IS.

Damascus regime

Omer Taspinar

, a columnist for the Turkish daily

Today’s Zaman

, wrote: “Ankara is concerned the American-led campaign against Isis will achieve two things. First, it will strengthen the Syrian Kurds, who maintain close ties with Kurdish separatists in Turkey. Second, it will strengthen the regime in Damascus. Ankara will decide to play an active role in the coalition only if it gets serious commitments about reversing these dynamics.”

Commentator Gokhan Bacik said the Kurds' fight against IS was rapidly increasing their international legitimacy. "As a direct consequence, the Kurdish groups are becoming more organised, to the point that they are acting as a quasi-state."

Rather than take fright, Turkey's wisest course would be to forge a grand alliance with the Kurds, said analyst Sahin Alpay. "It must also refrain from a policy of playing the Kurds of Turkey, Iraq and Syria against each other and instead strive for friendship and solidarity with all." – (Guardian service)