BERLIN/ANKARA/RIYADH (Own report) – The German Chancellor is raising strong accusations against Turkey. One should “be able to expect from a NATO member country” that it “will set the right priorities” and ultimately give precedence to the struggle against IS, Angela Merkel said yesterday (Wednesday), in reference to the catastrophic situation in the North Syrian border town of Kobani. Ankara is refusing any form of assistance to the Syrian-Kurdish combatants, trying to fend off the terrorist troops of the “Islamic State” (IS) storming the city. Observers are suspecting that an IS conquest of Kobani may even be to the Turkish government’s geostrategic advantage. Merkel’s accusations of Ankara are surprising – not solely, because Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has been systematically spying on Turkey. Therefore, Berlin had known of how Turkey has been supporting IS, without objecting. Likewise, Berlin had not intervened against the strategic measures being taken in Lebanon and Syria by the USA and Saudi Arabia, even though these also benefited the IS or other Salafist militias, that are today supporting the IS. Experts are warning that in the short-term, the strengthening of IS can no longer be halted. In the Turkish regions bordering on Syria, there could even be a similar development to the Afghan-Pakistan border.
No Help for Kobani
Chancellor Angela Merkel is raising strong accusations against Turkey. It is wrong for the Turkish government not to provide assistance to the Syrian-Kurdish defenders in the northern Syrian city of Kobani, said Merkel at a meeting of the Foreign Policy Committee of the German Parliament, yesterday (Wednesday). The Chancellor is quoted to have said “actually, one should be able to expect from a NATO member country that it will set the right priorities and that the struggle against the IS terrorism would have priority for Ankara.”[1] In fact, Turkey, which had never hesitated to carry out military interventions against the Kurdish PKK, even beyond its borders, is keeping itself completely out of the battle currently being waged just across the border in Kobani. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared, “Turkey is just as much against the ISIS (IS) terrorist organization, as it is against the PKK terrorist organization.”[2] The Syrian Kurdish PYD defending Kobani, is a PKK affiliate. However, Ankara’s refusal to concede to Western pressure and contribute to Kobani’s defense against the terrorist troops of the “Islamic State” is primarily because of Turkey’s geostrategic plans to eventually take control of parts of northern Syria. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[3])
Precise Knowledge
Merkel’s accusations raised against Turkey are surprising, because the German government must have been very well informed about Ankara’s support for Salafist militias and probably even for the IS in Syria. This is not only because, already back in 2013, the German domestic political intelligence agencies (the federal and the regional “Offices of the Protection of the Constitution”) had become aware of German Salafists, joining IS – in the meantime, at least 400 individuals, who usually had traveled to Syria by way of Turkey. It is unknown, why they could not have been prevented from going. Observers have begun to ask whether it could be because it had seemed more opportune to let the reprehensible Salafists here at home, go off to join the fight against the Assad government, considered here at home just as reprehensible – at least, until the IS began threatening western interests, thereby itself becoming a declared enemy. In addition, since it had recently been exposed that the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) had been engaged in comprehensive espionage in Turkey, it is incomprehensible that the BND had known nothing of IS’ systematic recruitment of fighters in Turkey, or Turkey’s importing IS-extracted oil or even that IS militiamen were being medically taken care of in Turkish hospitals.[4] Had Germany, at the time, set its priorities, where Merkel is now wishing Turkish priorities to be set – namely on the struggle against the IS – this terrorist militia’s reinforcement could have possibly been prevented.
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An Illusion
Specialists are warning that the IS, which is in control of several border crossings into Turkey, could establish itself on Turkish territory, very much like the Salafist militias from Afghanistan had done in Pakistan. It is “an illusion, to believe the Islamic State’s terrorism will halt at the Turkish border,” warns Rainer Hermann, a Middle East expert. “Pakistan also believed that, when it was supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan.” The terrorists, for example, could “recruit fighters from among the Syrian refugees” and “carry the religious conflict … inside Turkey” – similar to the Afghan mujahidin.[7] This would lead to a further proliferation of the current war, provoked by the West’s destruction of entire states in the Middle East.[8]
Global Geopolitics 