Istanbul: Turkey will not send ground troops into neighbouring Syria where it has been bombing Islamic State positions, a campaign that could “change the balance” in the region, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted as saying yesterday.
“We will not send ground forces,” Davutoglu told a group of Turkish newspaper editors according to the Hurriyet daily. “We do not want to see Daesh on our border,” Davutoglu said using an Arabic acronym for the IS jihadists, the Hurriyet daily quoted him as saying.
Turkey has launched a two-pronged “anti-terror” cross-border offensive against jihadists and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants after a wave of violence in the country, pounding their positions with air strikes and artillery.
The Turkish military on Sunday launched new strikes on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq as Ankara called a meeting of the Nato military alliance over its campaign against the PKK separatists and IS jihadists. Davutoglu said Turkish strikes against IS and PKK militants in Iraq and Syria would “change the balance” in the region.
Turkey has given a green-light to the United States on the use of a key air base near Syria for bombings against IS targets. The landmark deal to use Incirlik air base in southern Turkey comes after months of tough negotiations between Turkish and US officials.
Davutoglu declined to provide details of the agreement but said the concerns of Ankara, which had been pressing for a no-fly zone, were addressed “to a certain extent”. “Air cover is important, the air protection for the Free Syrian Army and other moderate elements fighting Daesh,” said Davutoglu.
“If we will not send ground forces — and that we will not do — then certain elements that cooperate with us on the ground must be protected.”
Turkey has not asked for substantial military help from Nato in its campaign against the Islamic State group and Kurdish militants, the alliance’s chief said.
Jens Stoltenberg also warned Turkey that its bombing campaign could endanger the progress that has been made in recent years towards reaching a peace deal with Kurdish militants. Nato ambassadors are due to meet today at Ankara’s request to discuss the spike of violence between Turkey, Islamic State jihadists and Kurdish militants.
“Turkey has a very strong army and very strong security forces. So there has been no request for any substantial Nato military support,” Stoltenberg said in an interview with the BBC.
While applauding Ankara for joining the fight against the IS, the Nato chief cautioned that “self-defence has to be proportionate”. And in an interview with Norwegian television, he warned that Turkey’s strikes on Kurdish militants risked undermining years of tortuous peace talks.
“For years there has been progress to try to find a peaceful political solution. It is important not to renounce that... because force will never solve the conflict in the long term.”
Meanwhile, Hadi Al Ameri, a top leader of Iraq’s powerful Shia paramilitaries, argued yesterday that there was no evidence Turkey had changed its position on the Islamic State jihadist group.
“I think (the strikes) Turkey carried out were to support to Daesh (IS) and not what some had imagined,” said Ameri, a top leader of the Hashed Al Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) force.
Ameri was speaking after a meeting in Baghdad between Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al Jaafari and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Ameri, whose Hashed forces have also been a key component of the anti-IS war in Iraq, said the raids against the PKK Turkish Kurdish rebels in Iraq showed there was no U-turn from Ankara. “Turkey has not changed its stance; it carried out operations against the PKK, which is fighting with the Kurds against Daesh in Syria,” he said. “Turkey still supports IS right now,” he said. AFP
