Turkey seeks buffer zone with Syria
Turkey is pushing for a buffer zone along its frontier with Syria as part of ongoing negotiations with the US over how best to confront the Islamic State.
According to a New York Times report, the buffer would act as a no-fly zone and a safe haven to absorb some of the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing into Turkey.
Turkey is trying to allay US fears that the zone could end up becoming a de facto state along the border for Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Asad.
Yet the prospect of a buffer zone is proving deeply divisive in Washington, as it would go far beyond President Obama’s original mission of taking on the Islamic State and would lead to a direct confrontation with the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad.
While Turkey has largely described the plan in humanitarian terms — to protect refugees and also Turkey’s border — the argument made privately is that a buffer zone would quickly evolve into a place where moderate rebels would be trained to fight Mr. Assad’s government; in other words, a fledgling rebel state.
The US has been piling the pressure on Turkey to do more in the fight against the Islamic State.
A Guardian editorial today argues Turkey has legitimate cause for concern over taking miitary action against IS:
A mistrustful Turkey is thus in no hurry now to let the US push it into sending ground forces into Syria, even in a limited one-off operation to do with Kobani, without assurances on overall objectives and especially as no clear international mandate is available at the UN. Turkish restraint also arises from its own difficult internal political and ethnic balance. Helping the Kobani Kurds could empower pro-PKK factions at a moment when Ankara is negotiating a delicate peace agreement with that movement in Turkey itself. But not helping the Kobani Kurds may fuel more Kurdish unrest inside Turkey. It is a catch-22 situation which Mr Erdoğan has not resolved.