Turkey and the United States are working on plans to provide air cover for Syrian rebels and jointly sweep Islamic State fighters from a strip of land along the Turkish border, bolstering the Nato member’s security and providing a safe haven for civilians.
Long a reluctant member of the US-led coalition against Islamic State, Turkey last week made a dramatic turnaround by granting the alliance access to its air bases and bombarding targets in Syria.
Struggling with more than 1.8 million Syrian refugees, Turkey has long campaigned for a “no-fly zone” in northern Syria to keep Islamic State and Kurdish militants from its border and help stem the tide of displaced civilians trying to cross.
While no such formal arrangement has been struck with Washington, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said yesterday the two allies saw eye to eye on the need to provide air cover for moderate Syrian rebels fighting Islamic State.
“What we have now is air coverage to clear a region from Daesh [Islamic State] and support the moderate opposition so they can gain control of that region,” Davutoglu told Turkey’s ATV.
“We do not want to see Daesh on Turkey’s borders.”
In Washington, US officials said discussions were ongoing about the size and scope of a safe zone along the border, which would be cleared of Islamic State fighters and allow moderate rebels to operate freely.
Turkey has a very strong army and very strong security forces
“The goal is to establish an Isil-free zone and ensure greater security and stability along Turkey’s border with Syria,” a senior Obama administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
US officials ruled out the joint imposition of a formal no-fly zone.
Nato will hold an emergency meeting to discuss security today at Turkey’s request. Ankara will brief its allies on the measures it is taking but did not request any air or troop support during preparations for the meeting, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.
Turkish soldiers position an anti-aircraft gun at Incirlik airbase in the southern city of Adana, Turkey, yesterday. Photos: Reuters“Turkey has a very strong army and very strong security forces so there has been no request for any substantial Nato military support,” Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told the BBC.
Alongside its action in Syria, Turkey launched a second night of air strikes on Kurdish insurgent camps in Iraq on Sunday, part of what a senior Turkish official described as a “full-fledged battle against all terrorist organisations”.
The renewed military campaign against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state partly from camps in northern Iraq, has raised suspicions that Turkey’s real agenda is checking Kurdish territorial ambitions rather than fighting Islamic State. Ankara is concerned that the success in northern Syria of the Kurdish YPG militia, which has pushed back Islamic State with the help of US-led air strikes, will stoke separatist sentiment among its own Kurds.
Turkey’s Kurds say that by reviving open conflict with the PKK, President Tayyip Erdogan is also seeking to undermine support for the pro-Kurdish opposition ahead of a possible early election and stoke up nationalist sentiment.
Highlighting the precarious path Ankara is treading as it battles Islamic State in Syria and Kurdish insurgents in Iraq, the YPG yesterday accused the Turkish army of shelling its positions in a village on the outskirts of the Islamic State-held town of Jarablus. A Turkish official confirmed the Turkish army had shot back after it came under fire from across the border on Sunday, but said it was unclear which group was involved and stressed the YPG was not a target.