Turkey's new priorities

Turkey's geographic location and ambivalent policy on the Islamic State group make it one the terrorist group's most sought after and convenient targets. Tuesday's attack in Istanbul is the latest in a recent series of deadly terrorist attacks against Turkey, after 110 people were killed in the capital Ankara in October and 30 people were killed in the town of Suruc on the Syrian border in July.

Ankara only recently joined the war against Islamic State. For a long time it allowed European terror activists to join the jihadi group in Syria. The West did not look kindly at Ankara's conduct. The Turks preferred to take the risk and turn a blind eye, as terrorists crossed the Turkish border into Syria. The most pressing issue, as far as Ankara was concerned, was to topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Today Ankara is left with Assad (backed by Moscow) as well as Islamic State. It is certainly reasonable to say that Turkey miscalculated.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now paying twofold: both for joining the campaign against Islamic State and for turning a blind eye while the terrorist organization grew in strength in Syria, just over the Turkish border.

Meanwhile, the Turks have relaunched the fight against underground Kurdish group PKK, despite kick-starting negotiations with the Kurds three years ago to end a violent conflict that has left 40,000 people dead since 1984. The Turks now need to eat their own stew, and it's not exactly tasty.

Ankara's new enemy

Generally speaking, Turkey presently needs to overhaul its priorities. The main enemy is Islamic State -- not the Kurdish underground. Ankara, lest we forget, also saw in Islamic State an excellent opportunity to undermine the Kurds, and considered it another tool with which to bury the Kurdish dream of an independent Kurdistan, which is a Turkish nightmare.

Let us also not forget that in 2014 the Turks did not raise a finger to help the Kurds in Kobani in northern Syria, when Islamic State was laying siege to the city. Ankara declined to intervene. Its hatred toward the Kurds outweighed its hatred of Islamic State.

Today the situation is altogether different. Islamic State poses the greatest threat. The fact that Turkey is a NATO member, and that at least eight of the victims from Tuesday's terrorist attack were German citizens, obligates Turkey to intensify its fight against Islamic State. This is also what its NATO partners expect of it.

The attack was also a message to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Tuesday's attack in Istanbul, in which almost every victim was German, will perhaps remind her just how complex the reality in the Middle East is, and how tackling the immigrant crisis does not come close to resolving other matters.

The latest terrorist attack in Istanbul on Tuesday, in the heart of the city's tourist area, has led Ankara to the understanding that paradoxically, yesterday's enemies (the Kurds) could be tomorrow's partners in the war on Islamic State. Only after that war is over will the Turks be able to return to their traditional enemy -- the Kurds -- whom they so love to hate. In the meantime, and until further notice, Islamic State is the top priority.

טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו