Opposition: Turkey does not intend its troops to fight ISIS in Syria

By Bestoun Osman

ANKARA, Turkey – The aim of a bill authorizing Turkish troops into Syria is the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, not a fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), a senior advisor to Turkey’s main opposition Republican Party (CHP) said.

“The goal of the bill was to allow the Turkish army to enter Syria and topple the regime in order to establish a new government,” Murat Ozcelik said in an interview with Rudaw.

“It is true that ISIL has also been mentioned in the bill, but it also identified Assad as the cause of the deterioration of the situation in the region,” he said, referring to ISIS by one of its other names.

Turkey has been a reluctant partner in the international coalition assembled to defeat ISIS.

After weeks of talks, Turkey finally allowed Peshmerga troops from Iraqi Kurdistan to pass through to Kobane, the Syrian Kurdish town immediately on the Turkish border that has been resisting an ISIS takeover. But on Friday – two days after they arrived in Turkey -- the troops were still waiting on the border to cross into Kobane.

“We want our government to focus only on ISIL. We told them that we have to fight ISIL and fight terrorism,” said Ozcelik, who spoke to Rudaw before the arrival of the Peshmerga.

“We should not allow the Turkish government to carry out a major military operation in a different country for different reasons,” said Ozcelik, a former diplomat and now one of the opposition’s top advisors.

“The reason why the government did not specify the target of the bill as ISIL was because the government had other political goals in Syria,” he alleged.

The Turkish parliament passed a bill three weeks ago authorizing military action in Syria and Iraq, but Ankara still has not deployed any troops.

"Don't expect an immediate step after the motion is passed," Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz told reporters in Ankara before the parliament vote.

Ankara has remained largely a bystander while the jihadists have waged a weeks-long war to take over the Kurdish town of Kobane that sits immediately across Turkey’s border with Syria.

“The Kurds in Kobane are facing extermination,” Ozcelik warned. “The Turkish republic could have used its power to protect the people of Kobane.”

Ankara’s ties with Iraqi Kurdistan Region have soured since Turkey refused to act when the militants came close to Erbil in August, and were beaten back by US airstrikes.

Turkey is part of the US-led coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria, but there are reports of Turkish backing for the militants, including the use of its territory for jihadists crossing into Syria and allowing the militants to sell oil smuggled out of territories they control in Iraq and Syria.

One reason for Ankara’s refusal to intervene in Kobane has been that the town’s Kurdish defenders, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) is linked to Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“We were carrying out airstrikes and limited ground operations against the PKK when they were coming into Turkey from Qandil Mountain,” Ozcelik said.

“Turkey can carry out similar attacks against ISIL in Kobane. We could have also at the same time carried out ground operations to save the people,” he added.