Kurdish refugees waiting to enter Turkey. Yahoo/Reuters.
Turkey is voting on if they should cross the Syrian and Iraqi border to fight ISIS and join the anti-ISIS coalition headed by the United States. Yahoo/Reuters. Turkey is prepared to defend the tomb of Suleyman Shah, an important figure in Ottoman history, which is located in the borders of Syria. Turkey is also facing a massive refugee problem involving the Kurds fleeing ISIS. Turkey views ISIS as a direct and clear threat against them, but are concerned about the direction the war is heading. They do not want to give Kurds, especially the PKK organization who has fought against Turkey for 30 years, even though they fight ISIS today. They also claim that any strategy that leaves Bashar Al-Assad in power will fail.
My Comment:
As I have said before I have a very low opinion of the Turkish government, I like Assad better and he is a murderous dictator. I don't think for a moment that Turkey would be acting in anything other then their own self interest here. Defeating ISIS isn't there number one priority. If it was they would have joined the war a long time ago. They want Assad gone and they want the Kurds to continue to be weak. Still, they don't want a massacre on their borders and it's only a matter of time before ISIS fighters cross their borders as well.
What will Turkey do? I am betting that they will vote for some limited support for the coalition. At most I see them sharing intel and allowing the U.S. and other allies to use airbases and ports. They may even do a token airstrike or two. I do see them sending in troops if the tomb of Suleyman Shah is threatened but other then that they won't do much. Again, their priorities are not the same as the anti-ISIS coalition.
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