A Syrian Turkmen commander who spoke to Al-Monitor from the Bostanpasa district, at the front line of Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo, says the international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) is not taking advantage of Turkmens willing to fight against the Islamic militant group.

The commander, who spoke without giving his name for security reasons, said, "IS attacks on our villages since August 2014 have increased. They have killed hundreds of Syrian Turkmens, beheaded our leaders in front of all of us. We have scores of young men volunteering to fight IS but we have problems supplying them with weapons. The whole world thinks Turkey is meeting all our needs. We wish it were so. If such had been the case, the Bashar al-Assad regime wouldn’t be so at ease in Damascus nor IS at Raqqa and Aleppo. The anti-IS coalition, if it wanted, could in a short time put together robust military formations of tens of thousands of Turkmens and score major successes quickly. But the international community is ignoring us and they don’t respond to our requests. We could contribute significantly to the war against IS but we are not getting any support.”

There have been reports of IS massacres in Syrian Turkmen villages since August 2014 that went unreported by the international media.

Another Turkmen fighter who fought against IS in the Cobankoy area north of Aleppo in 2014 said, “IS has tanks, artillery and armored personnel carriers. They have night vision and thermal equipment, all of them latest models. IS has no shortages of ammunition and logistics problems. We only have AK-47 rifles and Bixi machine guns. Our heaviest weapon is a 14.5 mm KPV [machine gun]. We have no night-vision capability. We go to the front with limited ammunition and with serious logistics shortcomings. We cannot pay our fighters. That compels our young fighters who are responsible for the well-being of their families to give up the fight and go to Turkey to make a living. This is not the way to cope with IS.”