U.S. frustration with Turkey’s reluctance to join an international coalition fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has begun to show, despite the Obama administration’s refusal to publicly criticize Ankara.
Turkish troops have remained on their side of the border with Syria, within sight of Kobani, even as Kurdish fighters in the town struggle to hold off its capture by the Islamist extremist group. Though the town’s defenders are being aided by daily bombardment from U.S. and allied aircraft, U.S. officials expect them to be overwhelmed unless reinforced on the ground — which Turkey has refused to do.
Capturing Kobani would give the Islamic State a stronghold on Turkey’s borders, and the group “is obviously a threat to Turkey’s security. In fact, there are few countries that have felt the ripple effect of this crisis as much as Turkey has,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Thursday, echoing the administration’s public optimism that Turkey eventually would join the coalition.
But administration officials, speaking to reporters on background, sent a different message.
“Of course they could do more. They want the U.S. to come in and take care of the problem,” a senior U.S. official told the Washington Post on Wednesday.
Turkish officials pushed back Thursday, noting that the U.S. and other countries had ignored their request to create a safe haven in northern Syria to ease the crush of some 1.5 million refugees who have fled across the border, and repeating their demand that the removal of Syrian President Bashar Assad be a priority for the coalition.
“We cannot expect Turkey to do a land operation. This is not a realistic approach,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a news conference with visiting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
“Once we reach a joint decision, Turkey will continue to act and do its utmost, but our strategy and what needs to be done is to clearly explain to our colleagues what has to be done in the region.”
Meanwhile, 31 people have been killed in Turkey since Wednesday in clashes between security forces and pro-Kurdish protesters angered by Ankara’s refusal to aid Kobani and by the deaths of Turkish Kurds who joined the fight. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made reference to the fact that fighters in the town include those Ankara considers to be terrorists.
Recruiting Turkey has been a major focus of U.S. diplomacy, because the NATO ally is seen as crucial to the success of the coalition’s goals, especially as the airstrikes reach the limits of their effectiveness. Turkey also has been a major transit point for the thousands of foreign fighters joining the Islamic State in Syria, some of whom have returned to their home countries. U.S. officials want Turkey to do more to block that flow.
The U.S. envoy to the coalition, retired Gen. John Allen, with Brett McGurk, deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, were the latest in a line of officials to make the trek to Ankara on Thursday for meetings with Turkish leaders.
“While we’re still in the early stages of consolidating a broad coalition for a long-term campaign, the events of last week have made it clear that urgent and rapid steps are needed to halt [Islamic State] military capabilities, and General Allen and Ambassador McGurk will make that clear in their meetings with Turkish officials,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Thursday.
Even with Kurdish and Iraqi ground forces available to exploit opportunities provided by the bombing campaign in Iraq, U.S. officials admit their success against the Islamic State have been mixed at best. In Syria, the situation is more dire, since there are no effective ground forces to bolster coalition efforts from the air.
“We all should be steeling ourselves” for the eventual fall of Kobani and other Syrian towns to the extremists, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said Wednesday, noting that the air campaign in Syria was designed to degrade the Islamic State’s capabilities rather than prevent it from capturing territory.
The international outcry about the town’s fate appears to have affected the coalition’s targeting plans, however. Since Monday, coalition aircraft have launched daily strikes around Kobani. The most recent ones on Thursday hit buildings in the town controlled by the Islamic State, U.S. Central Command said.
