After abandoning the territory formerly containing the tomb of Süleyman Şah — the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire — in northern Syria and unilaterally selecting a relatively safer location for a new tomb inside the warn-torn country last weekend, Turkey appears to be ready to take a firmer stand against the terrorist group the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
A number of questions persist about why Turkey has abruptly changed its policy and abandoned the only Turkish territory not attached to its mainland. When the 10-acre area was threatened by ISIL militants last year, Turkish officials declared in the strongest terms that any attack on the tomb would be considered an attack on Turkish territory and responded to accordingly.
The government’s move has been criticized by opposition parties, even though Turkish officials hailed the relocation as a success. Turkey also extracted the 38 troops guarding the tomb when it entered Syrian territory late on Saturday with a large number of troops and tanks. They demolished the tomb and moved the remains of Süleyman Şah and two of his soldiers who died with him in the 13th century. The remains were brought to Şanlıurfa province in Turkey, to be kept there until Turkey builds another tomb near the Syrian town of Ashme, within walking distance of Turkey’s Syria border.
Turkey had retained control of the tomb through a 1921 agreement with Syria’s former colonial ruler, France. According to this agreement, the burial place of Süleyman Şah became the property of Turkey and the country gained right to station a military presence to guard the tomb and hoist the Turkish flag there.
Despite the tomb having been relocated in the past with the agreement of Syria, this time, Turkey unilaterally picked a new location inside Syria, then notified the UN, declaring that Turkey retained the right to a piece of territory inside Syria for the tomb despite the decision to relocate the tomb due to security concerns. The move was condemned by the Syrian government, which described Turkey’s incursion into its territory as “flagrant aggression.” The US hailed the military operation as a success, while Iran warned that Turkey should not jeopardize regional security. Several veteran Turkish diplomats have also warned that Turkey has no right to unilaterally select another location for the tomb inside Syria because such a move represents a violation of international law.
On Feb. 19, only a couple of days before Turkey’s military operation, Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu and US Ambassador to Turkey John Bass signed a train-and-equip agreement for the moderate Syrian opposition. For months the US and Turkey have been negotiating the details of the deal. The deal will to a certain extent pit Turkey against ISIL, with Turkey becoming one of the countries training and equipping Syrian groups to fight ISIL. Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told the press on Feb. 19 that Turkey expects that the Syrian opposition fighters who will be trained by Turkey will fight against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in addition to ISIL.
The reasons behind the previous reluctance of Turkey — the only predominantly Muslim NATO member — to contribute to the US-led coalition against ISIL have been the subject of considerable speculation in international circles. An alleged ideological alignment between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) officials’ views and ISIL was an allegation that has been brought up by the international media a number of times.
After seizing the northern Iraqi city Mosul in June and subsequently kidnapping 49 people from Turkey’s Mosul consulate general, ISIL’s swift advance in both Iraq and Syria alarmed the Western world. ISIL’s brutal killings, including the beheadings of two American journalists and a number of aid workers, led the US to work on forming a coalition against the terrorist group.
Turkey had already faced heavy criticism at that time for allegedly turning a blind eye to foreign fighters who cross into Iraq and Syria via Turkey to join ISIL. These claims have been repeatedly denied by Turkish officials. During the summer of 2014, Turkey had the perfect excuse for not contributing to the international campaign against ISIL due to its hostage crisis. In order not to risk the lives of the hostages, Turkish officials avoided voicing support for the US-led coalition and refrained from making any statements which could potentially annoy the ISIL militants. – Daily Zaman
Must Read
