The Obama Administration’s announcement of a “coalition of the willing” to target ISIS was light on details, but the inclusion of Turkey was noteworthy, as the nation has a long border with ISIS territory, and a history of looking the other way when ISIS uses their territory for attacks.
The US has been keen to bring Turkey in because of that border, and the potential of using the “threat” to Turkish soil as leverage to bring NATO as a whole into a conflict against ISIS. Turkey is likely to play a quiet role, however.
The fate of a large number of Turkish hostages held by ISIS after the capture of Mosul continues to loom large in the nation, even though the Turkish government has banned media outlets from covering the situation.
Turkey’s promise of “cooperation,” like the coalition itself, is pretty ill-defined at this point, with officials saying it is unlikely Turkey is going to want to be too public about any anti-ISIS moves, both for fear of the hostages’ safety and the risk of an ISIS retaliation.
Erdogan government always been playing the "quiet role" as Erdogan regime has done for last four years. Erdogan regime was the quiet player in providing the logistic needs of all kind of rebels and thieves, the murderos from Saudi Arabia and EU sent to Syria to fight the Syrian people, do you remember hundreds upon hundred brand new Toyota Tacoma trucks entering northern Iraq from Syria! Where could have these trucks come from but from Turkish border, who would know about it and let the trucks throw, the Turkish government. Turkish, Erdogan government still plays its role in supporting and supplying ISIS and all other barbarians, period.
The way the NBC reporter "following Obama around Europe" put it was that Turkey was being included because of their "expertise" regarding border control. I actually came up out of my chair and my shout of "WHAT?!?!?!" caused the Frau to slop some of her sweet tea onto her lap. Was Ms. Jansing extemporizing or is that actually the reason the NATO gnomes gave for including Turkey? The Turkish border is more porous than the US border with Mexico.
If Turkey is there for their border expertise, then, yes, they will indeed play a "quiet role."
Turkey wants to participate in the coalition against ISIS in a kind of not so secret / secret fashion, apparently believing that no one in ISIS reads the Western press. But that's OK because the "rebels" in Syria wanted to join in a not so secret / secret alliance with Israel, apparently believing that no one in the Arab world reads the Western press. Obama appeared recently in Estonia to declare, essentially, that "no nation may violate the sovereign integrity of another nation," even as the USG plans to do exactly that in Syria, in pursuit of ISIS. And while the coalition prepares for a new long war against ISIS, various US allies continue to fund, arm, train (including training in "finishing off the wounded"), and provide medical care to the "rebels" in Syria who may or may not be / become ISIS fighters. Not only is the coalition "ill defined," its entire approach is incoherent to anyone but delusional halfwits, psychopaths / sociopaths, or the self professed "elite" of Western nations (but I repeat myself).
So once NATO and others are in Syria, won't they decide at some point that they can do little more than contain ISIS but at least they can build another ministate in Syria and to some extent keep Assad down? I haven't heard about Assad's objections yet.