Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem was quoted by state television on Wednesday as saying Syria supported efforts to combat ISIL, provided they were coordinated with Damascus.
“We will soon launch a comprehensive struggle against Islamic State together, now that we are already seeing American warplanes and unmanned drones arriving in Turkish air bases”, Mr. Cavusoglu told reporters during a visit to Malaysia after meeting his Russian...
Turkey, a member of the worldwide coalition led by its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally Washington, had so far declined to take robust action against jihadists but after a deadly bombing in July in a border town blamed on suspected IS jihadists, it launched limited strikes...
“As part of our agreement with the US, we have made progress regarding the opening up of our bases, particularly Incirlik,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu earlier told state broadcaster TRT, as cited by Reuters.
In recent weeks, Erdogan also has highlighted the advance of the Kurdish YPG militia as a greater threat than the Islamic State to Turkey’s national security.
“It’s a very, very delicate and complex balancing act that the U.S. will need to undertake to keep Turkey on side in the fight against the Islamic State while continuing military cooperation and coordination with the YPG in northern Syria“, Hakura said.
Turkey launched the offensive against the Kurdish fighters about a week ago, which effectively ended fragile peace talks, following a rise in deadly violence in the country.
Turkish security officials said that the PKK members planted an explosive device on the side of a road near the village of Araköy in Şırnak, “and detonated it when a Turkish armored vehicle approached the location”.
Two soldiers were killed and two others wounded today in southeast Turkey when a mine exploded in an attack blamed on militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), security sources said. In a day of apparent tit-for-tat violence, shortly after the raids by F-16...
The U.S. military is expanding its combat role in Syria in defense of coalition-backed rebels, conducting armed drone missions into Syria from an air base in Turkey and imposing new rules allowing the U.S.to defend rebels against attacks from any hostile force, including the...
But in an unexpected twist, Turkey simultaneously started shelling Kurdish rebels in Iraq, where Kurds have proved unusually capable of wresting back territory from the Islamic State militants with the help of air support from the U.S.-led coalition.
A significant element in Erdoğan’s calculations is that he can promote a climate of fear to enable the AKP to secure a parliamentary majority in any new elections.