Turkey, Friend or Foe?

turkish-prime-minister-turkeyAs the battle for the Syrian border city of Kobani raged and prospects of an ISIS-led massacre of thousands of innocent civilians loomed this fall, the BBC interviewed the vice-chairman of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP Party in Ankara.

Why hadn’t Turkey responded to NATO’s request to launch joint military operations to halt the ISIS assault on Kobani? How could Turkey just sit back and watch so many innocent civilians die, BBC correspondent Jonathan Marcus asked.

The replies from Yasin Aktay are telling.

“Why is Kobani the most important problem?” he asked. “There is no tragedy in Kobani as cried out by the terrorist PKK. There is a war between two terrorist groups. You mean we should… favor one terrorist organization over another?”

The AKP deputy leader went on to explain the calculus of death as seen from Turkey’s point of view. “Less than 1000 people have been killed in Kobani, but more than 300,000 people have been killed in Syria. Which is more important?”

Aktay’s remarks reveal much more than just a callous disregard for the Kurds, who comprise roughly one-third of Turkey’s overall population, or for the popular Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which broke off peace talks with the Turkish government in October to protest Turkey’s stranglehold over the Kurds in Kobani.

According to Vice-president Joe Biden, Erdogan himself admitted that Turkey had ordered border guards to turn a blind eye as new ISIS recruits flooded across Turkey’s borders to join the battle against Assad in Syria. (Okay, when Erdogan was informed of Biden’s comments, he hit the roof and demanded that “loose-lips” Uncle Joe retract them).

In response to a Harvard University student’s question whether the U.S. could have intervened earlier in Syria, Biden went even further:

“[O]ur allies in the region were our largest problem in Syria. The Turks were great friends – and I have the greatest relationship with Erdogan, which I just spent a lot of time with – the Saudis, the Emiratis, etc. What were they doing? They were so determined to take down Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war, what did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens, thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad except that the people who were being supplied were Al Nusra and Al Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world.

“Now you think I’m exaggerating – take a look. Where did all of this go? So now what’s happening? All of a sudden everybody’s awakened because this outfit called ISIL which was Al Qaeda in Iraq, which when they were essentially thrown out of Iraq, found open space in territory in eastern Syria, work with Al Nusra who we declared a terrorist group early on and we could not convince our colleagues to stop supplying them. So what happened? Now all of a sudden – I don’t want to be too facetious – but they had seen the Lord. Now we have – the President’s been able to put together a coalition of our Sunni neighbors, because America can’t once again go into a Muslim nation and be seen as the aggressor – it has to be led by Sunnis to go and attack a Sunni organization.” [h/t to Mark Langfan for excerpting this Q&A from Biden’s speech]

But Erdogan’s treachery goes much deeper.

Kurdish sources tell me that the initial Turkey-al Nusra front agreement was made more than two years ago, and included Turkey’s agreement to help smuggle arms to the Syrian rebels from Benghazi and other parts of Libya.

Earlier this year, Turkish and Qatari intelligence officials met with senior ISIS leaders in Jordan to plot the take-over of Mosul and the predominantly Christian Nineveh Plain.

Also at the meeting was a representative of Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) president Massoud Barzani, who has worked closely with the Turkish government and has spearheaded massive Turkish investment in northern Iraq. Barzani apparently believed ISIS would stop their advance after seizing Mosul and the Nineveh Plain, and ordered his peshmerga fighters to withdraw rather than fight the ISIS advance.

The most dramatic events occurred in Sinjar, when 13,000 peshmerga fighters mysteriously “melted away” in August rather than confront an ISIS assault force of around 1000 men. While much of the national media focused on the plight of the Yazidis, a Shiite sect considered heretical by most Sunnis, ISIS continued to march eastward through the Nineveh plain, massacring the Christians who failed to flee.

Not until they began threatening Erbil, the capital of the KRG, did Barzani apparently realize he had been duped and called on the United States to supply heavy weapons so the peshmerga could halt the ISIS advance. As Kobani was falling, Barzani authorized Kurdish fighters from the PKK and PJAK, who had bases in northern Iraq, to transit through his territory to relieve the besieged city.

A former ISIS communications technician, using the pseudonum “Sherko Omer,” recently sat down with Newsweek reporter Barney Guiton and spilled the beans on Turkey’s deep relationship to the Islamic State.

ISIS fighters traveled regularly back and forth from their stronghold in Raqaa, Syria into Turkey to acquire supplies and new fighters. “ISIS commanders told us to fear nothing at all because there was full cooperation with the Turks,” Omer said.

It was imperative for the Islamic State to establish a secure supply line through Turkey in order to bypass areas in northern Syria controlled by Kurdish fighters from the Democratic Union Party (YPG), which is allied to the PKK.

“ISIS saw the Turkish army as its ally especially when it came to attacking the Kurds in Syria,” Omer said. “The Kurds were the common enemy for both ISIS and Turkey.”

“I have connected ISIS field captains and commanders from Syria with people in Turkey on innumerable occasions,” Omer said.

In the same report, a YPG spokesman told Newsweek that Turkey was providing ISIS with arms and ammunition, in addition to allowing Islamic State fighters to cross unimpeded back and forth between Turkey and Syria.

His accusations were repeated in Berlin Claudia Roth, a deputy speaker of the German parliament and a Green Party MP.

President Erdogan’s “dealings with the ISIS are unacceptable,” Roth said. “I could not believe that Turkey harbors an ISIS militant camp in Istanbul. Turkey has also allowed weapons to be transported into Syria through its borders. Also that the ISIS has been able to sell its oil via Turkey is extraordinary.”

Turkish opposition politician Ali Ediboglu claimed in June that ISIS had already exported oil worth $800 million through Turkey through special pipelines and convoys of trucks, without any opposition from the Turkish authorities.

(For more on Turkey’s support for ISIS read Daniel Pipes’ summary of what Kurdish and Turkish intellectuals have been writing, and this excellent if lengthy report from the FDD’s Jonathan Schanzer.)

President Obama once named Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan among his top five “best friends” on the world stage, “an outstanding partner and an outstanding friend.”

No longer. According to Erdogan, the two no longer chat on the phone. The time of Obama “hearting” Erdogan are over.

Erdogan says their falling out began in September 2013, when Obama failed to order unilateral military operations against the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad once he faced resistance in the U.S. Congress.

If that’s the case, why is Obama letting Erdogan off the hook for his support for ISIS?

It’s time to let Turkey choose: they can continue to be a NATO ally and join us in the fight against ISIS and other enemies of freedom. Or they can continue to support ISIS and suffer the consequences. Which is it?

*

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  • Bamaguje

    Erdogan’s Turkey is clearly not on the same page as the rest of NATO, so they should be booted out. Allies are supposed to be ideologically compatible in order to work together. Erdogan’s Turkey clearly has an Islamist agenda that does not jell with NATO.

    • JacksonPearson

      For sure, they’re not a friend. This the path that Erdogan has forced onto the Turks…

  • Dallasyaherd
  • muchiboy

    One doesn’t have to look too far or wide to see that America has allied and supported over the years regimes that are neither democratic or respectful of Human Rights.Most times self interest is the driving motive of Foreign Policy,and doesn’t always reflect a nations values.You only need to look at American support for Zionist Israel to see this contradiction,or at least the dilemma of such a position.(Couldn’t help putting that in.Bite me!)

    • Texas Patriot

      Muchiboy, we should all be thankful that Zionist Israel did us the favor of awaking the sleeping giant of Islamic Jihad and bringing it out into the open for all the world to see. Otherwise, it could have been centuries before the world discovered the fundamental threat that Islamic Jihad presents to the civilizational ideals of individual freedom, human rights and constitutional democracy and to decent people everywhere. Because of the Israeli reclamation of the ancient homeland of the Jewish people, it is no longer possible for anyone to be fooled about the “religion of peace”.

      • muchiboy

        Well,perhaps,if not a good thing,it is a necessary thing,that the likes of ISIS/ISIL come to light.
        I can think of none better than Leonard Cohen,a Canadian icon,to address this in his Anthem.

        “There is a crack in everything,
        That’s how the light gets in.”

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4U4lXgvorU

        • SCREW SOCIALISM

          muchiyob,You’ve been smoking crack.

      • muchiboy

        “As a direct result of the Zionist Movement..”

        The occupation of the Palestinian Homeland has precious little to do with “Islamic Jihad” and Islamic Fundamentalism/theological schisms.It is representative of something more mundane,i.e.occupation,colonialism,victory and defeat,migrations of people,inhumanity of man,denial,land greed,etc.As a movement to fulfill a Peoples long cherished and well deserved hopes and dreams for Sanctuary,Zionism can be viewed as understandable and good.As a movement that contributed to and culminated in the displacement and de facto ethnic cleansing of another innocent and vulnerable People,Zionism must be understood as just another horrific “ism” in a long,dishonorable and cruel line of “isms”.
        It is simply what it is,Texas Patriot,reduced to the very best,and worst,of human behaviors.As to what side of history either the Jewish People or Palestinian People lie,that is for future generations,historians and Philosophers to decide.

        • Texas Patriot

          muchiboy: As to what side of history either the Jewish People or Palestinian People lie,that is for future generations,historians and Philosophers to decide.

          Past generations could have said that with greater comfort than we can today. We live in the Information Age, and the information we now have access to increasingly encompasses every single moment in time from the Big Bang up to and including the present.

          In the backdrop of the increasingly clear picture of the history of our shared humanity, it is no longer possible to ignore the murderous blitzkrieg of Islamic Jihadists in the 6th and 7th Centuries in which Jewish, Christian, Zoroastrian, Yazidi, Buddhist, and Hiindu civilizations were ruthlessly exterminated by the forces of Islamic Jihad in much the same way as we are seeing today in the cruel and ruthless blitzkriegs of ISIS and the Islamic State.

          You can do your best to keep your eyes tightly shut, Muchiboy, but it will be increasingly hard to do so going forward, even in our own lifetimes, and the reclamation of the ancient Jewish homeland must be seen in that light. The reason Muslims are so hyperbolically paranoid about what the Jews have done is that it calls into question the legitimacy of their claim to all of the lands they now occupy as a result of their ancient conquests.

    • SCREW SOCIALISM

      One doesn’t have to look too far or wide to see that SOCIALISTS have allied
      and supported over the years regimes that are neither democratic or
      respectful of Human Rights.

      Hence the Red/Green Axis of EVIL.

  • PI by Nature

    I would answer: partner of necessity. If the aim is to send Russia into a recession by putting Saudi natural gas on the world market, causing natural gas prices to fall, Turkey is a necessary partner to that end, as Bashar Hafez al-Assad must be forced out of power…or sufficient territory taken from his control to build the pipeline. Additionally, independently of the pipeline, Turkey is the only non-Russian air route between Europe and Asia…and Russia charges hefty fees to foreign carriers to travel over its airspace; as such, there is also geopolitical importance to Turkey. NATO may need Turkey more than the other way around.

    • Ståle Urbye

      What NATO needs is reliable members. Turkey is not a reliable member and should be kicked out of NATO the sooner the better. Pipelines may be built elsewhere. Air routes are a subject of negotiations. It may be quite unwise for Turkey to start a conflict on the issue of air routes with the EU. The greatest loser may be Turkey.

  • FedUpWithWelfareStates

    Turkey is trying to play all sides until they see, what they will deem, as an opportune moment to further advance their Islamic expansion agenda of a Neo-ottoman empire resurgence…

  • Texas Patriot

    Foe.

  • resolutely_pig-headed

    Turkey is an Islamic country with an overtly islamist president in Erdogan. It therefore cannot possibly be regarded as a friend of the West, even though the country is a long standing member of NATO. It is impossible to regard any Islamic country as friendly since Islam quite clearly aims at the destruction of Western civilisation as its goal. All such countries should therefore be viewed as being inherently hostile to our interests, just as all Communist countries were during the Cold War.

    • Texas Patriot

      Absolutely correct.

  • SoCalMike

    If treason wasn’t already an institution this fraud of an alliance with Turkey could not exist. Welcome to Post Truth America.

  • Dallas25305

    Turkey is aiding ISIS and hates the Kurds. The Kurds are the only group in the middle east that is tolerant. They like the U.S. and are the ones the U.S. should support. Strangely enough President Hussein seems to have no real problem with Islamist. What a surprise he thinks the U.S. is the problem too. Turkey should be kicked out of Nato they are just a 5th column in the alliance and will do nothing to aid and everything to hinder if not destroy the west.

    • Shel Zahav

      Israel is tolerant.

  • Stephen Murphy

    “…Turkey’s agreement to help smuggle arms to the Syrian rebels from Benghazi and other parts of Libya.” And Ambassador Stevens met with the Turkish Ambassador in Benghazi the evening of the attack…coincidence?

  • Hard Little Machine

    Anyone who slaughters Kurds is someone Erdogan can work with.

  • Metatrona

    Barack will straighten Joe out right away! Imagine, acting as if a Muslim state is our enemy? Soon, they’ll tell us 9/11 never happened.

    • Shel Zahav

      A Muslim is someone who can believe all five at the same time:

      1) 9/11 never happened
      2) 9/11 happened, but no Muslims were involved in 9/11
      3) Let’s celebrate the great deed of the Muslims who caused 9/11
      4) America did it to itself
      5) Jews did it

  • JayWye

    Gee,just what is the expiration date of land ownership? (in respect to nations or “homelands”)
    If a homeland loses their land because they made war on a neighbor how long does it take for that land to become the legitimate property of the “new” folks?
    Borders change. Once that land was Israel. Then the Romans.Then part of the Ottoman Empire,then it wasn’t. Then it come under the control of the British,under the UN Mandate. Then the Brits spilt up the Mandate into several nations. The Arabs were offered a state of “Palestine”,and REFUSED IT. Then the Arabs made war on Israel,several times,and LOST every time. The “Palestinians” ABANDONED their lands,on the order of Arab leaders. When the war was over,the Arab leaders had the “Palestinians” refrain from returning and reclaiming their lands. (but never offered them citizenship in their new homelands.) Now those folks are all gone,and only their foreign-born children remain.

  • muchiboy

    There is a distinction,and it is a necessary one if we are to have a reasonable debate here.It may be problematic at times when we need to tease out one from the other.However,it is obviously in the interest and to the benefit of Zionists to deny any difference.One cannot in all intellectual honesty equate one with the other,knowing what either Anti Zionism and Antisemitism mean.A failure to acknowledge this is intellectual dishonesty.

    • SCREW SOCIALISM

      Happy Eternal Nakba you dumb sack of socialist SHlTler!

      May all your Jihads turn into personal Nakbas!

  • vonrock

    Yet He and obama embrace like lovers. #leave us alone

  • edlancey

    We should kick Turkey out of NATO and let Israel AND Russia join. Then we can settle accounts in the middle east once and for all.

  • Shel Zahav

    The Turkish government is Islamist. When will America realize that?

  • cjkcjk

    The Turkish people also happen to be one of the most anti-American in the world.
    Last decent poll I saw they were the third worldwide.

  • Rosasolis

    Last week a recent report over Erdogan was sent out by BBC World News.
    It showed Erdogan giving an incredible speech to a large group of women and girls, whereby he declared that:
    1. women are not equal to men.
    2. women have only 1 goal in life; obeying their husbands and bearing
    many children.
    3. Turkey is now Islamic and will govern according to the Sharia Law.
    4. The government is against Cesaerian Section Operations for women going
    through a difficult labour–even if refusing this operation will risk the life of
    the mother, her child, or both!
    5. The government does not encourage a free life-style for women; they are
    to be protected.
    Our National Netherland news service, showed how thousands of Christian
    refugees from Syria and Iraq, are now struggling to survive the winter, along
    the border inside Turkey. The Turks have separated the Islamic refugees from
    the Christian groups. They are providing care for the Islamist groups, but are
    neglecting the Christians. The Christians are now relying on help from the
    Red Cross, Doctors and Nurses without Borders, and Christian Charities such
    as Open Doors, (which I support). These poor destitute people are not receiving
    any aid or support from the Turkish government. Many people here believe
    that Erdogan is intending to reverse the modern legislation of his great
    predecessor Atta-Turk and force Turkey to turn back to the laws of the
    barbaric Ottoman Caliphate. Because of this, I have been wondering if Turkey’s strategic position on the Mediterranean Sea is still important for the
    NAVO. I would now rather accept Israel and Russia. Since many NAVO countries have talented women in their military forces, perhaps someone
    should send pres. Erdogan a dvd of the fiilm G.I. Jane, with Demi Moore,
    as the Luitenant who proved her capability and dedication to serve in the
    Navy Seals. For those who are interested , America has an Open Doors site:
    contact first: http://www.opendoors.nl. Also opendoors USA.
    military forces, perhaps

  • Space Cowboy

    Why do you even have to ask this stupid question? The sole fundamental purpose of mainstream orthodox Islam (the only kind) is to convert all infidels to Islam or to otherwise kill or subjugate them via jihad and the eventual imposition of Sharia to ultimately make Islam and its followers supreme.

    Further, waging jihad, which is a so-called holy war waged by ALL MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD against ALL INFIDELS IN THE WORLD in the cause of Allah to ultimately make Islam and its followers supreme throughout the world, is a fundamental holy obligation COMPULSORY for ALL MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD in one form or another. Hence, ALL MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD are jihadists in one form or another, including Erdogan. Otherwise they are dead apostates or dead blasphemers, as apostasy and blasphemy are capital offenses in Islam.

    Thus, of course, Turkey is a foe. Look who is the president!

  • Giborei1967

    To all the anti-Semitic IslamoNazi posters here like mulichiboy, etc., spewing taqqiya and hate, I post a little essay to the point by Rosenthal:

    We are tired of hearing that withdrawal from Judea and Samaria will bring peace. We know and you know that it would bring another Gaza. So stop saying it.

    We are tired of hearing that land beyond the Green Line is ‘Palestinian land’. The Green Line is simply an armistice line that has no political significance. You know this too.

    We are tired of hearing about the “Palestinian people.” They are
    no different from the Arabs of Syria or Egypt, from which most of their
    ancestors migrated in the last 150 years or so. There is no Palestinian
    language or religion, and until very recently they considered themselves simply
    ‘Arabs’. Their culture is almost entirely defined by their opposition to the
    Jewish state.

    We are tired of hearing that “the Palestinians deserve a state.”
    We are indigenous here, not them, and their behavior entitles them more to a
    trial at The Hague than to a state. And they certainly don’t deserve our state,
    which is the only state they want.

    We are tired of hearing about ‘The Occupation’. As Naftali Bennett
    said the other day, you can’t be an occupier in your own land.

    We are tired of hearing that “settlements are illegal under international law.” They aren’t.

    We are tired of hearing that “settlement construction is an
    obstacle to peace.” Arab rejectionism and terrorism is the reason there isn’t
    peace. By the way, we are pro-peace. We are just not pro-suicide.

    We are tired of hearing about the 5 million (or whatever ridiculous number there are alleged to be) ‘Palestinian refugees’ or the ‘Palestinian diaspora’. There were about 700,000 Arabs that left their homes in 1948, mostly of their own volition, more or less at the same time as the 800,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries. We resettled ours — resettle yours.

    We are tired of hearing anything from anyone associated with the UN.

    The UN is a parasitic and criminal enterprise dominated by our mortal
    enemies.

    We are tired of stupid post-colonialist rhetoric. We aren’t ‘colonists’ and Arabs don’t have the right to murder us in the name of ‘resistance’. Talking this way reveals you as moral imbeciles.

    You can’t recognize a state that has no borders, no single government, and no economy.

    We know we can’t depend on any kind of security guarantee from anyone except the IDF. So stop being insulted because we don’t trust you. And
    don’t ask us to give up any nuclear weapons we might or might not have.

    We know that the left-wing parties in Israel are bankrupt of ideas. We aren’t going to vote for them, no matter how much you would like us to. So don’t bother trying to influence our election.

    Don’t believe what you read in Ha’aretz.

    Jerusalem, undivided, is the capital of the state of Israel. Get used to it, because you can’t change it.

    Sincerely, Vic Rosenthal.

  • Space Cowboy

    the murderous blitzkrieg of the Christian Crusades.

    What are you smoking muchiboy? The Crusades were a long delayed response to the relentless jihad that had conquered over half of Christendom? Man…whoever taught you history royally effed up your mind.

    Indeed, you didn’t learn history. You learned revisionism. No wonder you are so mentally incompetent. You definitely weren’t educated in America. My guess is Europe, where history taught to the masses was revised thanks to the Euro-Arab Dialogue. No wonder you hate Jews so damn much!

    What about the jihad? It’s a mirage or something? The sole fundamental purpose of mainstream orthodox Islam (the only kind) is to convert all infidels to Islam or to otherwise kill or subjugate them via jihad and the eventual imposition of Sharia to ultimately make Islam and its adherents supreme throughout the world.

    Indeed, that’s also the sole reason for the permanent and perpetual jihad being waged against the Jewish infidels by the Islamic totalitarian world’s so-called Palestinian proxies in Israel. As a matter of fact, we infidels are all in the same boat together, whether you are too mentally incompetent to realize it or not. When are you going to ever get tired of being a gullible useful idiot for the Muslims who constantly tug your puppet strings you moron? One can only hate Jews so much! Damn!

    Indeed, waging jihad, which is a so-called holy war waged by ALL MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD against ALL INFIDELS IN THE WORLD in the cause of Allah to ultimately make Islam and its followers supreme, is a fundamental holy obligation COMPULSORY for ALL MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD in one form or another. Thus, ALL MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD are jihadists in one form or another. Either of the violent variety (a tiny minority) or of the non-violent stealth variety (the vast overwhelming majority). Otherwise, they are dead apostates and dead blasphemers! As all non-conformers in Islamic totalitarian society are summarily executed for the capital offenses of apostasy and blasphemy according to the dictates of Sharia.

    Still,given their barbarous behavior ousting the Palestinians from their Homeland,the PLO in Lebanon and more recently in Gaza,they are hardly innocent in this respect.

    Take your stupid blinders off you myopic malcontent! The Muslims, (yes the so-called Palestinians are Muslims), are waging jihad against all infidels in the world. Do you believe it is because the infidels stole their homeland in every case? As for as the Islamic totalitarian world is concerned, the entire world is their homeland because they fully intend to convert all of us infidels to Islam or to otherwise kill or subjugate us to ultimately make Islam and its followers supreme! Thus, they are equal opportunity murderers, as besides the Jewish infidels in Israel, they are also massacring infidels of all stripes throughout the world. Yet, because you have been so inculcated to hate Jewish infidels and only Jewish infidels, you can only focus on Jews. Meanwhile, you are oblivious to the assault of Christians, Yazidis, Hindus, Buddhists, animists, and indeed all infidels throughout the world. Your hate has rendered you blind!

    And it all started because you were first inculcated with a revised version of history. Indeed, you are oblivious to reality! Sucks to be you!