The mind-boggling gains of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) in Iraq have caused tremors in the region. Among questions most heard nowadays is whether the Middle East map will be redrawn and where Turkey will be in that. Another question often voiced is the alleged role of Turkey in the empowerment of ISIS. There are allegations that militants coming from abroad to join ISIS pass through Turkey. There are even allegations that Turkey, in addition to its support of Syrian opposition groups, is also supporting ISIS.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vehemently denied such allegations and asked for proof. This is why we called on Salih Muslim, the co-chairman of Syrian’s most dominant Kurdish organization, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), who has been critical of Turkey on the ISIS issue. We asked him to back up his statements that Turkey has been supporting ISIS. Did he have any evidence of Turkey’s support of ISIS?
We had heard similar allegations recently from Syrian Kurdish militants of the PYD’s military wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG), which is fighting ISIS.
Didn’t ISIS, by occupying the Turkish consulate in Mosul and taking all its personnel hostage, blatantly contradict the charges that Turkey supports ISIS? Moreover, Turkey had added ISIS to its terror list in September 2013.
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