‘ISIS Sees Turkey as Its Ally': Former Islamic State Member Reveals Turkish Army Cooperation

a reply to: tavi45

Agreed.

Your initial post was lacking IMO. Simply saying that the "government are liars" has become a phrase that means feck all on here these days, it's a call sign for nothing better to say except "I'm not a sheep", it's empty rhetoric IMO.

Of course Turkey is acting in it's own interests. NATO or not, Turkey is going to see it's own objectives as paramount with regards to ISIS and the Kurds.

What irks me is when people speculate that somehow the US is behind everything in these affairs, these people are usually Americans themselves, they're wrong IMO, Turkey takes orders from no one, they're strongly defiant but also trying to placate the international community.

The politics of this region are complex and archaic, and when your average 'conspiracy' Joe weighs in with his five cents it's usually with catch phrases and, lest I repeat myself rhetoric, so please forgive me for misjudging you.

a reply to: seabhac-rua

No forgiveness needed. I'm fully aware of how easy it is to assume ignorance. I just wanted to point out to the one guy that I'm sure NATO is complicit at the least, or encouraging/ordering at most. Turkey is not going to get kicked out of NATO unless it attacks a NATO member.

Turkey (NATO for all intents and purposes) has been assisting ISIS and also the Kurds to sell their oil for some time now and has been acknowledged to be doing so by the US Department of the Treasury.

The State Department's blatantly two faced policy on ISIS is easily seen for what it really is when oil sales are taken into account. ISIS is being used by the State Department as forest rangers would use a "controlled burn" in a forest fire. They are doing so for a purpose and will keep the fire going for as long as they have a use for it.

The ultimate end to all of this is still unclear but, personally, I think it involves the Kurds and Azeris and western Iran.