Photo courtesy of npr.org
Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, announced Monday that the country of Turkey will now be “helping the Peshmerga cross over to Kobani” according to an article in the New York Times.
The Peshmerga are a Kurdish military group currently in a military conflict with the Islamic extremist group, ISIS, otherwise known as ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). Kobani, a city on the border of Turkey and its neighboring country Syria, is currently under control of the Kurds despite several attacks from the Islamic State this year.
Recently, Turkey refused any military assistance to the Kurdish militants, by refusing passage through their borders to Kurdish forces.
The sudden change in Turkish policy was accompanied by US support increasing by sending ammunition and other military supplies via airdrops.
BBC correspondent Mark Lowen described “a delicate political dance” taking place between the US and Turkey, as President Erdogan of Turkey stated on Sunday that the Kurdish military in Syria was composed of terrorists and should not be armed by Turkey or the United States. Turkey now joins other countries such as the United States, France, Germany, England, and Canada in the campaign against ISIS.
William Barney
Will Barney attended Snow College for two years. He graduated from American Leadership Academy (ALA). After Snow College he is attending Southern Utah University, and plans to get a B.A. in English with a minor in Secondary Education. Will is a Horror connoisseur, and enjoys comic books and video games.