The recent Islamic State's (IS) assault on the Syrian town of Kobani on Turkey's border is putting Ankara under political fire, the Voice of America News website reports today (June 25, 2015).
A co-leader of Turkey's pro-Kurdish HDP, Figen Yukeskdag, says there is a high probability that Turkey facilitated the attack, saying it has long supported the Islamic State. Turkish officials deny the accusation.
Retired Turkish Ambassador Murat Bilhan, vice chairman of the Turkish-Asian Center for Strategic Studies, said Ankara's concerns center on the Syrian fighters' suspected links to PKK, a Kurdish rebel group that has been fighting the Turkish government since 1984.
Based on U.S. intelligence, President Barack Obama last month said Ankara needed to do more to secure its border with Syria, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Western airstrikes, claiming they were facilitating ethnic cleansing by Kurdish forces of Arabs and Turks.
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