The recent bombing attack in Surac, Turkey appears to have been a wake-up call for the Turkish government after months of relative ambivalence about ISIS’s growth on their southern border. Today, a border clash erupted between the military and ISIS forces, leaving at least one soldier slain. An ISIS fighter was also killed in attacks that followed.
This sudden realization that they have a long border with the ISIS caliphate and that this might be a problem has the Turkish military scrambling to secure that border, digging a 365 km ditch along much of the border, setting up reconnaissance drones, and installing some 150 km of modular walls there.
The military is also deploying fighter jets and tanks to the border region, anticipating more cross-border attacks by ISIS forces, a problem which opposition figures say Turkey wasn’t taking seriously until the most recent round of attacks.
Turkey has long been the route of choice for ISIS recruits to enter the Caliphate, and with Turkey openly endorsing the Syrian Civil War they’ve done little to prevent the recruits from crossing. This recent tension along the border may serve to slow ISIS recruitment.
Turkey is doing two things: 1) it is walling off Syria; and 2) it is allowing the US to bomb Syria from Turkish bases. It is allowing the bombing because it is now walling off the threat. The bombing was seen as likely to provoke that threat, and the wall is acceptance that the threat is unavoidable.
This does not favor the insurgency against Assad. It closes Turkey as the major crossing point it was into Syria for all of the insurgents. It closes down the major front for the West. Jordan has always been the minor front. Now it is the only front.
Signing on to the American bombing campaign is also Turkey throwing up its hands and walking away from its own efforts. Clearly they were not having any success, but giving up is not the same as trying something better. They've given up.
I expect Turkey to now explore a deal with Assad, just like they did before.
I don't cheer that. I just think it is about to happen.
Syria border is 3 times longer then Iraq's, good luck.
but amazing that ISIS is forwarding to the north rather then to the west down towards Israel it says where the influence is coming from and the direction ISIS is moving..