Turkish troops enter Syria to rescue forces stationed there. Yahoo/AFP.

Turkish troops driving through Kobani while on a mission. Yahoo/AFP.

Turkish troops mounted a rescue operation in Syria with 600 troops to relieve soldiers stationed at a Turkish enclave. Yahoo/AFP. The 40 Turkish troops were guards assigned to the tomb of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, which was the predecessor of the current state of Turkey. The special forces assigned to the tomb were in a standoff with ISIS. The relief column consisted of 39 tanks, 57 APC's and 100 other vehicles. The remains of Suleyman Shah were removed from the tomb and will be reburied in a different part of Syria. Turkey has taken a new piece of land from Syria to house the new tomb near Eshme. No fighting was reported during the operation but one soldier did die due to an accident. 

My Comment:

I'm not surprised at this action. Suleyman Shah is an important figure in Turkish history. Given how ISIS tends to treat historical tombs this was inevitable. Indeed, ISIS considers all tombs to be blasphemous. They usually destroy any tombs that they find, with no regard of the historical or spiritual importance. Since the Turks have already moved the tomb once, it isn't surprising that it would be moved again. 

What is surprising is that the mission went off without a hitch. ISIS must have bugged out when they saw a huge armored column heading their way. Given how strong that column was it was probably wise for ISIS to remember that discretion is the better part of valor. Picking a fight with a huge military column usually isn't worth it, especially if all you really want to do is defile a tomb. It wasn't worth going to war with Turkey over it. 

As for Turkey itself, I've been critical of them for a long time. They should be doing more to fight ISIS and as of right now they are doing little to nothing. Turkey is the main corridor for foreign fighters entering Syria and Iraq. They have been letting ISIS get away with that because they hate the government of Syria and want to bring it down. They also don't particularly like the Kurds and have only helped them fight ISIS when they absolutely had to in Kobani. In short, Turkey has adapted a "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" policy for ISIS. As long as ISIS is focused on killing Kurds and Syrian government forces, Turkey will do very little to fight them. 

That could have changed if this tomb had been defiled. There would have been widespread protests and calls to attack ISIS. That would not play into Turkey's hands. They want Assad and the Kurds to burn. Fighting against ISIS plays against that goal. They have resisted pressure to fight from NATO and the Arab states, but if this tomb had been destroyed and Suleyman Shah's remains been lost then they would have had to do something. Now they can keep on doing on nothing.

And as always, given that my ethnicity is partially Greek, I have more then a little prejudice against Turkey. The reasons for that should be obvious but I believe in pointing out bias when it exists...