Turkey’s alleged support to radical groups in Syria has long been a watershed issue, setting a new challenge for sowing conflicting interests and contradicting values among allies. While addressing the UN General Assembly on Sept. 25, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed those accusing Turkey of somehow aiding or turning a blind eye to these terror groups. He instead argued that due to the international community’s inability, his country’s security is jeopardized by these terror organizations, turning the areas around Syria and Iraq to “free regions” and pulling together these jihadists like a magnet.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu echoed the same accusation against the international community for its inaction in toppling the Syrian regime. “If [the international community] had implemented a 'no-fly' zone across Syria when we first proposed it, the Islamic State [IS] would not have had the means to expand as widely as it has today,” Davutoglu said Sept. 20. “Once the [Syrian] regime bombs, the opposition ends up withdrawing from the areas under its dominance and escapes to safer areas. IS rapidly fills in this void. This created a tactical coalition between IS and the [Syrian] regime. This is what led the IS threat to grow bigger.”
While the Erdogan-Davutoglu pair scolds the international community for not following their advice in efforts to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, they strongly deny any misconduct in their policy. The more the Turkish government continues the blame game, though, the more the US administration signals that it could also do the same. For example, Francis Ricciardone, US ambassador to Turkey until July, said Sept. 12 that Turkey has actually worked with al-Qaeda-affiliated groups in Syria such as Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham.
US Secretary of State John Kerry followed up on these remarks Sept. 24. “In the very beginning, when the efforts to oust Assad took place, there were people who made calculations that the important thing is to remove Assad: ‘Yes, there are some bad apples there, but we want to get him out,’” Kerry said in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “They realized it morphed into something more ominous, more threatening, and so I think people have really pulled back.”
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