Turkey and ISIS - Like Peas in a Pod (Hard Evidence!)

Russia Insider ^ | November 25, 2015 | David L. Phillips

[marvel5]

Is Turkey collaborating with the Islamic State (ISIS)? Allegations range from military cooperation and weapons transfers to logistical support, financial assistance, and the provision of medical services. It is also alleged that Turkey turned a blind eye to ISIS attacks against Kobani.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu strongly deny complicity with ISIS. Erdogan visited the Council on Foreign Relations on September 22, 2014. He criticized “smear campaigns [and] attempts to distort perception about us.” Erdogan decried, “A systematic attack on Turkey's international reputation, “complaining that “Turkey has been subject to very unjust and ill-intentioned news items from media organizations.” Erdogan posited: “My request from our friends in the United States is to make your assessment about Turkey by basing your information on objective sources.”

Columbia University's Program on Peace-building and Rights assigned a team of researchers in the United States, Europe, and Turkey to examine Turkish and international media, assessing the credibility of allegations. This report draws on a variety of international sources – The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, BBC, Sky News, as well as Turkish sources, CNN Turk, Hurriyet Daily News, Taraf, Cumhuriyet, and Radikal among others.

[marvel5]

Excellent objective study by independent academic researchers that tells you all you need to know. Conveniently summarized.

[piytar]

Of course Turkey under that islamist is helping out ISIS. Sadly, the same applies to the US.

/sigh, shame, and disgust...

[alloysteel]

Turkey, and particularly its President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is a dedicated Islamist who would like nothing less than re-establishing the Ottoman Empire, and the founding of a Caliphate in the Islamic State would be a step in that direction. Of course, President Erdogan would step in and assert his ascendancy to that noble position, or at least the right to name who it shall be.

Czarist Russia was never comfortable with the Ottoman Empire on its southern flank, and the situation between the nation-states was a very troubled one, ending up on opposite sides in several regional engagements, over some three centuries.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you may look at it), the Czarist rule of Russia, and the Ottoman Empire both faltered and failed in part because of the pressures brought to their crumbling power bases in the First World War. The Russian fatherland became a Communist dictatorship, and the Ottoman Empire was carved up into literally dozens of little republics, or strongman fiefdoms, often without regard to individual tribal differences in the region.

Today, Vladimir Putin and Recep Erdogan are standing eyeball to eyeball, and either has yet to blink.

What could possibly go wrong?

[WMarshal]

I hope that the Russians kick the crap out of Turkey, reconquer Byzantium, and force the Turks to flee back to the steppes of Asia where they belong. I will rejoice if the Russians tear down every minaret in Byzantium and the sound of the Orthodox Church chants spill out the open doors of Hagia Sophia, the greatest cathedral and wonder of the ancient world.

I also have a request directly for Putin: "Naveshat' pizdyley!"

I am saying this as a Protestant American of northern European descent, I am neither Russian or Greek Orthodox.

[Uncle Miltie]

What I’ve been saying for 12 months.