Cyprus-Forum.com

[Paphitis]

So why is it that ISIL fanatics are allowed to cross into Syria and join ISIL while some Kurds are not allowed to cross to help their kinsmen hold the city of Kabani!

Is Turkey actively supporting ISIL or not?

[Robin Hood]

According to an interview with a Turkish official on the BBC, they do allow the Kurdish fighters through but stop then having anything other than AK47/RPG launchers, as the Turks are concerned that the heavy stuff that would make a difference could be turned against them by the Kurds when they had finished with ISIS.

[Paphitis]

According to an interview with a Turkish official on the BBC, they do allow the Kurdish fighters through but stop then having anything other than AK47/RPG launchers, as the Turks are concerned that the heavy stuff that would make a difference could be turned against them by the Kurds when they had finished with ISIS.

Hello RH and welcome back.

According to the Kurds, they are not being allowed to cross at all.

The Turkish Official has to say something I suppose, because right now they are under close scrutiny from the US. The US has stopped short of admitting anything but the Republican Opposition are describing Turkey as a traitor and accusing Turkey of supporting Islamic State. The US wants Turkey to intervene in Kobani, where as the Turks are playing all kinds of games and even tried to blackmail the US that it should concentrate on Assad before they commit to saving Kobane.

There might be other issues at stake, such as not wanting to help the Kurdish Fighters, known as YPG, which according to some sources is affiliated to the PKK.

[Robin Hood]

Another thing that strikes me as odd about this ISIS conflict is NATO’s reaction, or should I say lack of reaction? It is very obvious by any news reports that these people are very dangerous, not only in the region but are a threat globally. So where are the NATO forces sitting on the Turkish border to counter any move by ISIS to export their terror into Asia/Europe. Surely they have to be a serious threat and would warrant such a NATO force?

Compared with Ukraine, where there was virtually no concrete evidence of any serious threat from the Russian Federation and yet NATO have mobilised all along the NATO/Russian boundaries and yet ISIS has not even warranted a single Sopwith Pup or a Saracen armoured car to defend against their threat!

I think you could be right and that Turkey would prefer to see the Kurds wiped out by ISIS, rather than facing the Kurds with sophisticated weaponry.
My answer would have to be biological warfare! Civilians are dying and will continue to do so, so why not take them all out at once ISIS and all those in the area? Maybe not very PC ..... but it would alleviate a whole lot of problems!

[Tim Drayton]

The Western media seems determined to portray this as being mainly a Kurdish-Turkish thing, and this is certainly one aspect, but far from being the only or main dimension. The Islamist AKP regime in Turkey was well on the way to brokering a solution to the domestic Kurdish problem, and electoral support for the AKP is very high among Sunni Kurds in Turkey, and this regime was on very good terms with the autonomous Kurdish administration in the north of Iraq, so a simple minded view that portrays Kurds and Turks as eternal foes just will not wash. What most observers seem to miss is that the de-facto autonomous Kurdish region of Rojova in the north of Syria is stridently secular, as the appearance of self-confident, uncovered women in the ranks alongside men in the fight against DAESH shows. What the Islamist regimes on the Turkey - Qatar - Saudi Arabia axis want to see is Sunni Islamist regimes installed in the region, to a large extent as a bulwark against Iranian influence in the region, ethnicity doesn't come into it.

[Tim Drayton]

According to an interview with a Turkish official on the BBC, they do allow the Kurdish fighters through but stop then having anything other than AK47/RPG launchers, as the Turks are concerned that the heavy stuff that would make a difference could be turned against them by the Kurds when they had finished with ISIS.

Well, I don't know. I was watching a left-wing Turkish Internet TV station (http://www.capul.tv) a couple of days ago and they were broadcasting live from the Syrian border just opposite Kobane and I saw the Turkish army turning back people who were trying to cross over to the Syrian side and these people had nothing in their hands. Perhaps the official interviewed was talking about people using official crossing points.

Actually, the people of Rojova are fighting to establish an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria, so I fail to see what their issue with Turkey is.

[Paphitis]

Another thing that strikes me as odd about this ISIS conflict is NATO’s reaction, or should I say lack of reaction? It is very obvious by any news reports that these people are very dangerous, not only in the region but are a threat globally. So where are the NATO forces sitting on the Turkish border to counter any move by ISIS to export their terror into Asia/Europe. Surely they have to be a serious threat and would warrant such a NATO force?

Compared with Ukraine, where there was virtually no concrete evidence of any serious threat from the Russian Federation and yet NATO have mobilised all along the NATO/Russian boundaries and yet ISIS has not even warranted a single Sopwith Pup or a Saracen armoured car to defend against their threat!

I think you could be right and that Turkey would prefer to see the Kurds wiped out by ISIS, rather than facing the Kurds with sophisticated weaponry.
My answer would have to be biological warfare! Civilians are dying and will continue to do so, so why not take them all out at once ISIS and all those in the area? Maybe not very PC ..... but it would alleviate a whole lot of problems!

Well the Ukraine is probably a lot more serious and right up NATO's alley since they are confronting Russian Expansionism against a friendly country.

In Syria, I think the focus is more along the lines of establishing a coalition between the US and regional partners like Lebanon, Jordan, UAE and Bahrain. You will notice that most Western Coalition partners are engaging ISIL in Iraq with the Iraqi Security Forces as the spearhead. Operations in Syria are not authorized by those governments partly because there does not seem to be any strategy beyond disrupting, degrading and ultimately destroying ISIL. Most of these countries are in fact NATO allies. There is a strategy in Iraq but not in Syria.

What is concerning is the unwillingness to commit troops. The Air Campaign is already effective, but a comprehensive defeat will take a long time to achieve.

[kurupetos]

So why is it that ISIL fanatics are allowed to cross into Syria and join ISIL while some Kurds are not allowed to cross to help their kinsmen hold the city of Kabani!

Is Turkey actively supporting ISIL or not?

I think Turkey realised that the ultimate target is the formation of a Kurdish state on her expense...