In position shift, turkey shows support for kurds
Turkish decision involves Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces
, Turkey • In a significant shift, Turkey’s top diplomat announced Monday that his country is helping Iraqi Kurdish fighters cross into Syria to “give support” to fellow Kurds defending the border town of Kobani from Islamic terrorists.
The remarks by Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu came hours after the U.S. military announced that it had for the first time airdropped weapons, ammunition and medical supplies provided by Iraqi Kurdish authorities to Kurdish forces in Kobani.
Sunday’s airdrop followed weeks of U.S. and coalition airstrikes in and near Kobani, along the Syrian-Turkish border.
A U.S. military official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter by name, said the airdrops included small arms.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said it would be “irresponsible” and “morally very difficult” not to support the Kurds in their fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS).
Turkey previously has said it would oppose any U.S. arms transfers to the Kurdish rebels in Syria. It views the main Kurdish group in Syria as an extension of the Turkish Kurd group known as the PKK, which has waged a 30-year insurgency in Turkey and is designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and by NATO.
Although a significant departure from previous positions, Turkey’s decision to allow fighters to cross its territory is not a complete change of policy, since it involves Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces rather than the PKK.
Mr. Kerry said ISIS had chosen to “make t hi s a ground battle, attacking a small group of people there who while they are an offshoot group of the folks that our friends the Turks oppose, they are valiantly fighting [ISIS] and we cannot take our eye off the prize here.
“Let me say very respectfully to our allies the Turks that we understand fully the fundamentals of their opposition and ours to any kind of terrorist group and particularly obviously the challenges they face with respect the PKK,” Mr. Kerry said.
“But we have undertaken a coalition effort to degrade and destroy ISIL, and ISIL is presenting itself in major numbers in this place called Kobani,” he said, using another acronym for ISIS.
Kobani-based Kurdish journalist Barzan Isso, who said he saw the airdrop, said the bundles included “modern weapons” such as anti-tank missiles, sniper rifles and large amounts of artillery shells in addition to medicines.
He said the Americans dropped the bundles amid heavy wind and that two bundles landed in areas held by ISIS. Kurdish fighters were able to retrieve one of them while the other was blown up by the Americans from the air.
He added that the statements by the Turkish foreign minister were “a Turkish political manoeuvre that has nothing to do with reality.” He said no peshmerga fight- ers had arrived in Kobani from Syria.
It remains uncertain whether Ankara would allow large numbers of heavily armed Iraqi Kurdish fighters to make the journey and if significant numbers are likely to do so given the threat ISIS still poses to Kurdish areas in Iraq.
“Iraq’s Kurdish regional government announced that they are in co-operation with Turkey and the U.S.,” Mr. Cavusoglu said at a press conference in the Turkish capital, Ankara.
“Actually, we are helping peshmerga forces to enter into Kobani to give support,” he added.
Mr. Cavusoglu did not provide details, and it was not immediately clear where and how Turkey was allowing Kurdish fighters into Syria, after blocking them so long. Also unclear was whether this had already happened or was still to take place.
The U.S. Central Command said the coalition conducted six airstrikes near Kobani in the past 24 hours that destroyed ISIS fighting and mortar positions and a vehicle. It confirmed that one airstrike targeted a stray resupply bundle that prevented the supplies from falling into enemy hands.