Kerry puts pressure on Turkey for stronger cooperation against ISIL
Erdoğan received John Kerry (US Secretary of State) during his visit to the country’s capital Ankara to discuss several urgent topics concerning the region such as Syria, Cyprus proceedings, and Libya and problem of ISIS.
John Kerry, the Secretary of State of the United States, arrived in capital Ankara on Friday afternoon and was received by Erdoğan at Cankaya Palace following a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. During talks with high level Turkish officials, Kerry also spent effort to convince Turkey to provide vital cooperation against the threat of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the region.
US President Barack Obama’s administration has been working on building a strong coalition against the ISIL threat for some time, and Turkey’s role is considered vital as a Sunni Muslim NATO ally within close proximity to the ISIL targets in the region.
It has already been reported that The US officials have been pressing hard on Turkey to show its willingness to contribute. On Wednesday, a senior US State Department official spoke to the press about Kerry’s regional tour which includes Ankara, saying: “We may need enhanced basing and overflights… There’s going to be a meeting soon of defense ministers to work on these details.”
Turkey is in close proximity to ISIL targets in Iraq and Syria, and the US is looking for wider overflight permission from Iraq and Syria’s neighbors for military strikes against ISIL. In the last seven days, three important face to face meetings and several phone conversations took place between US and Turkish officials on possible ISIL cooperation. Obama met with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for an hour-and-a-half meeting last Friday on the sidelines of the NATO meeting in Wales. On Monday, US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was in Ankara to press Turkey a bit more.
On Friday, Kerry then came to Ankara as part of his recent tour aimed at forming a regional alliance against ISIL. Kerry met with the new Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in the afternoon. The only time the two were available to the press was at the beginning of their meeting and the two made statements but did not take questions from the journalists afterwards. The US Secretary of State emphasized that Turkey and the US are important partners not only in NATO but on many issues ranging from Libya, Mali and Africa to the Middle East and Iraq.
John Kerry’s visit to Ankara came one day after Turkey refused to sign a communiqué in a counter-terrorism meeting in Jeddah on Thursday.
Kerry and Çavuşoğlu were both in Jeddah on that day for a counter-terrorism meeting, where Saudi Arabia, other Gulf states, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon agreed to cooperate against ISIL, take steps to stop foreign fighters going to Iraq and Syria and funds going to ISIL, provide humanitarian aid and contribute to different aspects of the military campaign. While the Arab allies signed the final communiqué, NATO ally Turkey did not. A Turkish foreign ministry official did not comment on the reasons behind Turkey’s reluctance but said that they may issue a statement later on.
Turkey reportedly had been asked during these meetings to seal its borders to prevent foreign fighters coming and going into Syria through its territory and to take measures to prevent oil smuggling. Turkey claims that its hands are tied due to the 46 Turkish citizens and three Iraqis who were kidnapped by ISIL from Turkey’s Consulate General in Mosul about three months ago. Turkish officials have imposed a gag order on the Turkish media over the hostage issue, claiming that they do not want news stories putting the hostages’ lives at risk. With this move, the government has effectively prevented the press from questioning any failures by Turkish officials in this issue.
SOURCE: MEDIA
