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Is Turkey collaborating with the Islamic State (ISIS)? Allegations range from military cooperation and weapons transfers to logistical support, financial assistance, and the provision of medical services. It is also alleged that Turkey turned a blind eye to ISIS attacks against Kobani.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu strongly deny complicity with ISIS. Erdogan visited the Council on Foreign Relations on September 22, 2014. He criticized "smear campaigns [and] attempts to distort perception about us." Erdogan decried, "A systematic attack on Turkey's international reputation, "complaining that "Turkey has been subject to very unjust and ill-intentioned news items from media organizations." Erdogan posited: "My request from our friends in the United States is to make your assessment about Turkey by basing your information on objective sources."
Columbia University's Program on Peace-building and Rights assigned a team of researchers in the United States, Europe, and Turkey to examine Turkish and international media, assessing the credibility of allegations. This report draws on a variety of international sources --
The New York Times,
The Washington Post, The Guardian,
The Daily Mail, BBC, Sky News, as well as Turkish sources, CNN Turk,
Hurriyet Daily News,
Taraf,
Cumhuriyet, and
Radikal among others.
Comment: Rather than ask the most important question of 'who benefits' from the downing of the Russian Su-24, Western officials and media seem very eager to scapegoat Turkey. 'They're arming ISIS' - 'they need to be kicked out of NATO' - 'Erdogan's a dictator' - etc. How easily they forget that their countries are responsible for the Syrian conflict which Russia is trying to clean up, and that Putin has revealed that Russia knows 40 different countries that have been financing ISIS. That means that there are 39 more corrupt, head-chopper-funding networks to deal with. And that includes the one that benefits most from the death of a Russian pilot, the destabilization of Turkey and the region, and who knew the Russian pilot's flight plan - the U.S.
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