ARUTZ SHEVA reports: Prof. Efraim Inbar, Director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, told that Turkey has been supportive of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, as it pursues greater influence in the Middle East.
Efraim Inbar in 2012 believed that “air strike on Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities is the appropriate action. He said it should be carried out “in the medium term.”
Some experts have called it a "Neo-Ottoman foreign policy", to regain influence in places that were once backwater provinces to the Ottoman Empire.
But plans to expand that influence have run into trouble. The relationships with both Israel and Syria have totally collapsed, but Turkey is now looking at influence through the Sunni Islamist (extremists) movements in the Middle East.
"The Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda and ISIS – Turkey does not distinguish between them," says Inbar.
"They are helping ISIS with its wounded by treating them in Turkey and with weapons, and turning a blind eye to people coming (to Syria) from Europe. It has become a staging ground."
Professor Inbar asserts the controversial proposition that not only is Turkey neglecting the threat of ISIS in the Middle East or remaining passive to it, but actively encouraging it, a position supported by reports of Turkish sympathy to ISIS. Others on the ground do not go so far.
""The Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda and ISIS – Turkey does not distinguish between them," says Inbar."
According to a report by the Kurdish Rudaw news site, Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) Chief of Staff Fuad Hussein said at a conference Thursday, “the Turkish priority is different. The Turkish priority is to remove the government of (President Bashar al-Assad) in Syria, not ISIS."
In Inbar's mind, the way Turkey approached the battle of Kobane – ultimately won by Syrian and Iraqi Kurds - was fully indicative of their attitude toward Islamic State. If they had wanted to do more to liberate the city, they could have.
"They were going to allow Kobane to fall. It was only because of Western pressure that they let Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in from Iraq," Inbar said.
Changing ties with Kurds?
Turkish tanks at the border of Syria only some hundred meter from Kobane
Asked if Turkey's attempts to make a breakthrough in the government's conflict with its Kurdish citizens might be a sign it is growing closer to the Kurds in Iraq and cooling its stance toward Kurdish militias fighting in Syria, Inbar was certain that they absolutely were not.
Regardless, Turkey has been making efforts to prop up the government in the Kurdish region of Iraq. A reported $500 million loan from Turkey is a sign they want the region stable, but Inbar says Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants one thing out of Kurdistan.
"They want energy from the Kurdish area," he says. egardless, the money is not a sign they want a
Kobane freed but destroyed
strong ally in Iraq to counter Iran - much less ISIS - but merely out of the stability that allows the Kurdish oil to flow.
When asked about reports that Turkey has also sent weapons to the Kurdish region, he downplayed their significance while still being surprised that they delivered such aid to the Peshmerga.
Worries about Iran
"They do not say it openly, but they are also apprehensive about growing Iranian influence in the Middle East," said the professor.
"It is not clear to what extent they're ready to do something on their own, but they might continue to strengthen anti-Assad forces."
Turkey is certainly considering getting more invested in the emerging anti-Iran bloc. Recent visits to Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf show that at the least the Arab states "want to use Turkey to help balance things out to Iran, at least to some extent."
But if Turkey wants to continue on its more assertive foreign policy path that emphasizes Turkish ambition and a Sunni Islamic identity, it might be inevitable they throw themselves into the enmity between the Iranians and the Saudis.