The Turkey–Islamic State conflict are a series of attacks and clashes between the state of Turkey and the Islamic State. Turkey joined the War against the Islamic State in 2016, after the Islamic State attacks in Turkey. The Turkish Armed Forces' Operation Euphrates Shield was aimed against both the Islamic State and the SDF. Part of Turkish-occupied northern Syria, around Jarabulus and al-Bab, was taken after Turkey drove the Islamic State out of it.
Etymology Turkey like some other countries, such as France and the UK uses the name DAEŞ, DEAŞ, or DAİŞ, which is the group's Arabic acronym for (Dawlat al-Islam fil-Iraq wal-Sham) which the Islamic State considers as a derogatory insult. The Turkish abbreviation for the Islamic State is IŞİD (Irak ve Şam İslam Devleti).
Background Allegations of Turkish cooperation and support
Ever since the foundation of the Islamic State in June 2014, numerous Western media reports and the PKK have stated that Turkey collaborated with and supported the Islamic State. Several of the allegation have focused on Turkish businessman and politician Berat Albayrak, who has faced calls for his prosecution in the United States.
In June 2014, when the Islamic State kidnapped 49 Turkish diplomats from the Turkish consulate in Mosul, a columnist said that Turkey now was "paying the price of its collaboration with terrorists", with "terrorists" referring to the Islamist factions in the Turkish-backed FSA.
Some news websites in late 2014 also criticised Turkey for "doing nothing" against the Islamic State.
In April 2018 an article was published by Foreign Policy in which it was stated that in 2013 alone, some 30,000 militants illegally crossed into Turkish land, establishing the so-called "jihadi highway", as the Syria–Turkey border was popular among foreign volunteers illegally crossing it to join the Islamic State in Syria. Furthermore, it was claimed that wounded Islamic State militants were treated in private-owned hospitals across southeastern Turkey. Among those receiving care was one of the top deputies of Islamic State chieftain Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Ahmet el-H, who was treated in a private hospital in Sanliurfa in August 2014.
IS offensive on Kobanî On 29 November 2014, reports emerged of the Islamic State fighters allegedly launching an assault on Kobanî from Turkish territory. Kurdish sources in Kobanî alleged that Islamic State fighters attacked Kobanî from Turkish territory, and that the assault began with a vehicle driven by a suicide bomber coming from Turkish territory. During the attack, a group of Islamic State fighters were seen atop granary silos on the Turkish side of the border. According to the German news outlet Der Spiegel, Islamic State fighters also attacked YPG positions near the border gate from Turkish soil. According to SOHR, YPG fighters in turn crossed the Turkish border and attacked ISIL positions on Turkish soil, before pulling back to Syria. Soon afterwards, the Turkish Army was deployed and cleared both out from the border crossing and silos area. The Turkish government rejected all those claims.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu later claimed that "Turkey is the first country which designated ISIS as a terrorist organization and refuted the allegations which claimed Turkey had involvement in the Kobanî attacks."
Conflict 2013 May 11: Potential IS attack
On 11 May 2013, two car bombs exploded in the town of Reyhanlı, Hatay Province, Turkey, close to the busiest land border post (Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing) with Syria. 51 people were killed and 140 injured in the attack, the deadliest single act of terrorism to occur on Turkish soil up until then—to be surpassed by the 10 October 2015 Ankara bombings with 102 mm.
Who is responsible for the attack is, as of yet, unclear: politicians, authorities, media, suspects have named at least six possibilities. The Islamic State, during late September 2013, suddenly claimed the 11 May 2013 attack. In response to the attacks and claim, the Turkish government sent air and ground forces to increase the already heavy military presence in the area.
2014 January 28: Turkish attack on IS convoy
On 28 January 2014, the Turkish air force, according to few sources, performed an airstrike on Syrian territory hitting a pickup, a truck and a bus in an Islamic State convoy, killing 11 militants and emir Abu Ja'afar ad-Daghistani. Conflicting reports however said it was fire from Turkish tanks and artillery hitting the Islamic State vehicles, after mortar shells had accidentally landed in Turkey.
March 20: IS attack on Turkish security officials On 20 March, three Islamic State militants emerging from a taxi opened fire with an AK-47 (some reports say Glock automatics) and lobbed a hand grenade, killing a Gendarmerie soldier and a policeman who were conducting routine checks on the Ulukışla–Adana expressway, and injuring four Gendarmerie. The attackers were wounded in return fire but got away. Two of the attackers were apprehended at Eminlik village, where villagers, thinking they were wounded Syrian civilian refugees, took them to the local medical clinic. Benyamin Xu (German), Çendrim Ramadani (Swiss) and Muhammed Zakiri (Macedonian) were all sentenced to life in prison for the attack.
June 11: IS kidnaps 49 Turks In June 2014, Turkey officially designated the Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front as terrorist organizations.
Also on 11 June 2014, the Islamic State captured the Turkish consulate in Mosul and held all of its 49 workers as hostages. This happened during the June 2014 takeover of Mosul.
The hostages were freed in mid-September 2014 after Turkish authorities had paid the ransom and swapped the hostages for 180 Islamic State militants who had been apprehended after being illegally in Turkey for medical treatment. Turkey had denied paying the ransom.
September 5: Turkey enters US-led coalition
On 5 September 2014, Turkey entered a US-led coalition, CJTF–OIR vowing to 'join forces to fight ISIL'.‘U.S. Forms Anti-ISIS Coalition at NATO Summit’ . Time, 5 September 2014. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
November 22: Turkish training of Peshmerga During early November 2014, in a move that surprised many, Turkish soldiers began training Peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq. A Turkish official referred to it 'as part of the [shared] struggle against ISIL'.
2015 January 6: Istanbul attack On 6 January 2015, a bomb is detonated in Istanbul's Sultanahmet Square. One police officer got killed while another officer was injured.
March 6: ISIL threatens the Suleyman Shah Tomb
Previously in March 2014, the Islamic State had threatened to attack the Tomb of Suleyman Shah (the grandfather of Osman I), although they were not near the area. In early 2015, it was reported that the Islamic State was coming closer to the tomb site, Turkey on 21 February 2015 decided send a military convoy of a hundred armored vehicles and 570 troops, and remove the tomb and place it some 27 km northward, still in Syria but much closer to the Turkish border.
June 5: Diyarbakır attack
On 5 June 2015, just 48 hours before the June 2015 general election, two separate bombs exploded at an electoral rally in Diyarbakır held by the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). Four were killed and dozens were injured. The Dokumacılar were blamed for the attack.
July 20: Bomb attack Suruç
On 20 July 2015, the municipal cultural center in Suruç in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa was bombed. 34 people, mostly university-aged students planning to reconstruct the Syrian border town of Kobanî, were killed and more than 100 people were injured. The Islamic State claimed the attack a couple of days later. According to journalist Serkan Demirtas, this attack might have been the attack in which Turkey considered a "declaration of war" from the Islamic State and began taking them much more seriously afterwards.
July 23: Turkish air bases for US to use against IS
On 22–23 July, the U.S. reached an agreement with Turkey for American warplanes striking the Islamic State in Syria to be stored in the Turkish air bases at İncirlik in Adana Province and Diyarbakır in Diyarbakır Province. Turkey confirmed the deal on 24 July. US Gen. Joseph L. Votel, head of the Pentagon's Special Operations Command, on 24 July thanked Turkey for its permission to use the Turkish air bases: "It provides additional flexibility and agility in addressing this enemy ISIL (...) It also means that Turkey has taken another step forward in being more committed to helping us."‘Anticipating Attack, Strikes 3 ISIS Targets With Jets’ . The New York Times, 24 July 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
July 23: Elbeyli incident On 23 July 2015 at 13:30 local time, five gunmen, identified by the Turkish military as being Islamic State militants, attacked a Turkish border outpost in the border town of Elbeyli, Kilis Province, killing one Turkish soldier (Yalçın Nane) and wounding five.‘U.S. Jets to Use Turkish Bases in War on ISIS’ . The New York Times, 23 July 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
In reaction, Turkish forces chased the militants into Syria, and Turkish tanks and artillery shelled Islamic State strongholds in northern Syria, killing at least one militant and obliterating a number of vehicles.
Turkish tanks also bombarded a small (abandoned) Syrian village north of Azaz, Aleppo, in which the Islamic State militants were thought to be hiding, and killed or wounded several of the militants who were trying to take cover there.
Around 7 pm on 23 July, reports stated that 100 Islamic State militants had been killed, but those reports were criticised by anti-government newspapers. The Turkish Armed Forces later stated that all five militants who had attacked the Turkish army in Elbeyli had been killed.
July 24: 'Turkish–American zone in northern Syria'
On 24 July 2015, the Turkish, English-language newspaper/website Hürriyet Daily News, referring to anonymous "Turkish sources", reported that the deal, made public by the United States the previous day, in which Turkey gave permission to the US to use Turkish air bases, came with the US agreeing to let Turkey set up a "partial no-fly zone" in Northern Syria of 90 km wide, between Syria's Mare' and Jarabulus, 40 to 50 km deep.
Neither Turkey nor the US has officially confirmed the deal on the Turkish buffer zone – a no-fly zone protected by Turkish and CJTF–OIR forces – which would provide a safe haven for refugees and deny the SDF access to crucial territory. In the no-fly zone, SAA jets will not be permitted, Hürriyet stated.
Hürriyet Daily News suggested on 24 July that the no-fly zone was intended to "prevent radical groups such as ISIL or the (...) al-Nusra Front from gaining the mentioned land". While no official statement was released on the supposed deal on a 'no-fly zone', the British The Guardian speculated the deal to be part of Turkey's preoccupation with "thwarting Kurdish separatist ambitions in lawless parts of Iraq and Syria" and a prelude to the US allowing a possible Turkish military action against the YPG in the area.
Turkish website Hürriyet Daily News on 25 July, again referring to unmentioned "sources", changed their earlier narrative and vocabulary. Their story now ran as that Turkey and the US had agreed on an "ISIL-free zone" in northern Syria, 98 kilometers long between Mare' and Jarabulus and 40 km deep, an area at that moment largely under Islamic State control, from which the US and Turkey planned to eliminate all "jihadist terrorists". That goal would be pursued by air strikes mainly by the U.S., for which the US had been given permission (on 23 July) to use the Turkish air base İncirlik; Turkey would, if necessary, assist with long-range ground artillery.