TurkeyAbrupt shift: Turkey allows Kurdish peshmerga to cross Turkish territory to help in Kobani’s defense
Bowing to intensifying U.S. pressure and growing domestic anger, the Turkish government, in an abrupt shift, announced yesterday (Monday) that it would allow Kurdish peshmerga forces from northern Iraq to cross Turkish territory on their way to defend Kurds in the besieged Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani. In another development, the United States has decided to ignore objections by the new Iraqi government to the United States directly providing military aid to the Kurds, and yesterday air-dropped twenty-four tons of weapons and ammunition for the Kurdish defenders of the town in the first supply run the United States had made to the besieged town in nearly five weeks of fighting. Military analysts said the two moves could tip the military balance in favor of the defenders of the Kurdish town in their month-long battle against Islamic State (ISIS) fighters.
Peshmerga fighters present as a disciplined, well-supplied fighting force // Source: alhurra.com
Bowing to intensifying U.S. pressure and growing domestic anger, the Turkish government, in an abrupt shift, announced yesterday (Monday) that it would allow Kurdish peshmerga forces from northern Iraq to cross Turkish territory on their way to defend Kurds in the besieged Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani.
Military analysts said the move could tip the military balance in favor of the defenders of the Kurdish town in their month-long battle against Islamic State (ISIS) fighters.
Only on Sunday, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan pointedly said that Turkey would not agree to any U.S. arms supplies to Kurdish fighters defending the town (see “Turkey will not agree to U.S. support for Kurds fighting ISIS in Syria: Erdogan,” HSNW, 20 October 2014). The New York Times notes that Erdogan’s statement came a day after a frank discussion between President Barack Obama and the Turkish leader, in which Obama made it clear to Erdogan that the United States would ignore Turkey’s objections. It now appears that Erdogan’s Sunday statement was a last-ditch effort to dissuade Obama from going through with the U.S. plan to begin and provide direct military aid to the Kurdish defenders.
Obama’s response came on Monday: He ordered the U.S. military to air-drop of twenty-four tons of weapons and ammunition for the Kurdish defenders of the town in the first supply run the United States had made to the besieged town in nearly five weeks of fighting.
The Turkish announcement of the dramatic shift in Ankara’s position came hours after the U.S. military air-drops. It remains to be seen whether the change in Turkey’s policy is tactical, that is, related only to the defense of Kobani – and, perhaps, to the Kurdish issue — or whether it is more strategic in nature, signaling a move away from Turkey’s tacit support for ISIS (see “Turkish jets bomb Kurdish positions,” HSNW, 15 October 2014).
The U.S. decision to air-drop weapons, ammunition, and other supplies to the Kurdish defenders of Kobani is also a snub to the new Iraqi government, which has insisted that any aid to the Kurds must go through Baghdad. The United States, however, has grown impatient with the new Iraqi government’s foot-dragging on the issue of Sunni inclusion, and the decision to go ahead with direct supplies to the Kurds may signal a broader strategic decision not to hold the battle against ISIS hostage to factional political machinations in Baghdad.
