My enemy’s enemy – Turkey’s stance on Islamic State

Abstract:

In the context of the civil war in Syria, Turkey has been accused of intense co-operation with Islamic State. The accusations have been coming for some time from the West, and also from the Turkish opposition and the Kurds. The Russian government has also joined in the accusations over the past few months. According to the Kremlin’s narrative, Turkey allegedly not only supported this organisation but was also engaged in trading oil with it ‘on an industrial scale’.

Ankara, which has categorically denied these reports, has undoubtedly displayed great ambivalence in its attitude towards Islamic State. Accusations of systemic co-operation with radical militants in Syria and Iraq were difficult to confirm. The radicals themselves posed a serious threat to Turkey’s security. The terrorist attacks in Turkey were suspected to have seriously affected its internal stability and international reputation of being a safe country (especially the Istanbul attack on 12 January 2016).

The internal characteristics of the Syrian conflict and the engagement of external forces made it difficult to verify the reports on extensive and coordinated co-operation between Ankara and Islamic State. All parties to this conflict received external support, and the situation in Syria itself changed. However, this did not change the fact that Turkey has for a long time tactically benefited from the existence and operation of Islamic State, given that its priorities included ending Bashar al-Assad’s regime and preventing a Kurdish autonomous region being established in Syria. Yet, its ambivalent stance on the ‘enemy of its enemy’ posed a serious risk to both Turkey’s internal stability and its international reputation.