NATO member Turkey will not allow the United States to use its air bases to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports:
Turkey will refuse to allow a US-led coalition to attack jihadists in neighbouring Iraq and Syria from its air bases, nor will it take part in combat operations against militants, a government official told AFP Thursday.
“Turkey will not be involved in any armed operation but will entirely concentrate on humanitarian operations,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
AFP adds, “Turkey has come under fire by some critics for indirectly encouraging the formation of ISIS because of its support of Islamist opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and its loose control of its borders.”
In its effort to build international support for military action against ISIS, the Obama administration had included Turkey as part of a “core coalition” of allies who would work with the United States.
A Congressional hearing earlier this week examined Turkey’s role in supporting jihadist groups across the Middle East including ISIS, the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
In Where the Shadiest Players Find a Home, published in the September 2014 issue of The Tower Magazine, Jonathan Schanzer explores Turkey’s role in in supporting extremists:
… it has become increasingly clear that the rise of IS and other dangerous groups can be linked to the dangerous and permissive border policies Turkey has employed over the past two years. It was only last year that U.S. President Barack Obama chided Erdoğan for “letting arms and fighters flow into Syria indiscriminately and sometimes to the wrong rebels, including anti-Western jihadists.”