Erdogan and Jihad

Turkish passivity in the face of the siege against Kobani weakens Obama’s precarious coalition.

The precariousness of the coalition headed by the U.S. that fights the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, and the lack of a clear strategy, are dramatically displayed in the jihadi siege of Kobani, the Syrian city of Kurdish majority on the Turkish border. Kobani, from which almost 200,000 people have fled, is on the verge of falling into extremist militant hands in spite of continuous U.S. bombings and the indifference of Turkish tanks lined up one mile from the front.

The collapse of Kobani not only threatens the security of this semi-autonomous Kurdish region in Syria, but it also heats up a crisis between Washington and Ankara. In Turkey itself the implications are very serious. There are scores dead in the final hours of disturbances led by the oppressed Kurdish minority that feels abandoned in protecting their own.

Washington is demanding heavier involvement from Turkey and sees its NATO ally’s passivity as disloyalty during a crucial battle. President Erdogan, whose parliament just passed a law that allows his troops to enter Syria and Iraq to fight “terrorist groups,” sees it differently. He basically demands (but not alone) that the allied offensive include among its objectives the defeat of Bashar al-Assad, something that Obama rejected. Turkey isn’t the only government with this ambition, which is also shared by the White House’s Sunni allies, but it is the only one to formalize it to get seriously involved with Syria.

Nevertheless, there’s a darker argument to the Turkish position. Defenders of Kobani align themselves with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the internal archenemy of the Turkish state for more than 30 years. Erdogan uses the Syrian city’s suffering as leverage to weaken the Kurdish minority’s position in its peace negotiations with Ankara. Turkey’s worst nightmare is the emergence of a new Kurdish entity, dominated by the PKK, along its enormous border with Syria.

The military strength exhibited by the Islamic State group and Turkish reluctance endanger cohesion of the coalition against jihad. Those who died yesterday in Turkey prove that Erdogan is mistaken. The terrifying threat of the totalitarian Islamic caliphate installed on the same border of a country that aspires to incorporate itself into the EU is well beyond internal political maneuvers or personal ambitions.