Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met in Islamabad Saturday and agreed to enhance counter-terrorism cooperation aimed at fighting the possible threat from militant group Islamic State and other such organisations. The two leaders also discussed the enhancement of bilateral relations, besides global and international issues of mutual interest.Turkey has very recently upped the momentum of its fight against IS and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) — two groups who are themselves bitterly opposed — after a week of deadly violence in Turkey the authorities blamed on the organisations.The recent raids against IS marked a major shift in policy towards the group by key Nato member Turkey, which has faced severe criticism from its Western allies for not doing enough to combat the jihadists.The US and Turkey also recently agreed to work together to drive fighters of the self-styled Islamic State from northern Syria with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu saying its military could “change the balance” in the region.The potentially game-changing accord between the US and Turkey aims to “establish an ISIL-free zone and ensure greater security and stability along Turkey’s border with Syria,” said a US official last week. This seems fine in principle but in practice the bulk of Turkey’s air strikes over the past week have targeted the YPG and PKK more than IS. hile Turkey’s belated turn from ignoring the threat from IS, not the least to itself too, in its blind zeal to unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is welcome, the manner in which the campaign is being carried out raises some troubling questions. Ankara seems to have directed most of its wrath against the Kurds, whose Syrian component, the YPG, is being assisted by the US for its heroic successes against IS, the retaking of Kobane being the prize in this crown. So on the one hand the US is helping the YPG against IS, and at the same time agreeing with Turkey to fight IS together while ignoring Turkey’s actual anti-Kurdish thrust. But the confusion in policy in a complex situation is not confined to Washington. The real centre of the confusion resides in Ankara, which cannot see the need for united action of all the forces opposed to IS. It seems Turkey is more concerned about the successes and growth of the YPG as it fears its example could strengthen the hand of the PKK, which has been struggling for independence/autonomy/Kurdish rights for the last 30 years. Although PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan’s capture some years ago finally yielded talks for a political solution of the Kurdish question within Turkey, those talks too may have suffered because the recent Turkish elections have denied the ruling party a majority and pushed it to contemplate (horrors!) a coalition with a pro-Kurdish party. War against the Kurds in the name of fighting IS or waging a struggle against terrorism therefore may be serving both Ankara’s domestic political and foreign strategic purposes. However, Ankara’s inability to see the wood for the trees and recognise the real menace IS presents to Iraq and Syria today (including in the latter the IS threat to all the so-called ‘moderate’ Islamist opposition), and arguably could present to Turkey tomorrow, may bring it grief. Reaching out to Pakistan in this context, albeit in a brief encounter, cannot make a dent in the ground situation nor can it obviate the need for Turkey to revisit its Assad obsession and misdirected actions against the Kurds and recognise the principle contradiction: the danger IS’s rise poses to the region as a whole, including Turkey.
pk.shafaqna.com
