The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is directly attributable to policies adopted by the Turkish government.

Focusing on a Turkish trucker named Turfan Aydin, the Times notes that cross-border trade between Turkey and Iraq has virtually stopped “by the insurgent offensive in Iraq and the kidnapping of 80 Turkish citizens.”

Once this border was wide open, as Turkey allowed rebel groups of any stripe easy access to the battlefields in Syria in an effort to topple President Bashar al-Assad. But that created fertile ground in Syria for the development of the Sunni militant group that launched a blitzkrieg in Iraq this month, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. …

Now, with the rise of ISIS, the Turkish government is paying a steep price for the chaos it helped create.

Aydin notes that the proliferation of ISIS terrorists is because “Turkey let them in.”

It’s not just relations with Iraq that have suffered: The Syria civil war has brought trade with Turkey to a halt, and Turkey has spent an estimated $1.5 billion on providing for Syrian refugees.

In addition to problems Turkey has with its two neighbors, it is suffering from an ongoing corruption scandal, and the increasing repressiveness of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government.

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