Reluctantly perhaps, given the time it took it to do so,
Turkey on June 3 finally designated al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra a
terrorist organization. The decision was seen as further proof of
Turkey’s failed Syria policy, which has left the government of Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan little choice but to fall in line with the
United States with regard to radical groups fighting in that country.
The decision to ban Jabhat al-Nusra also comes tellingly less than a week after President Barack Obama announced that aid to Turkey, as well as Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, would be increased so that they can “confront terrorists working across Syria’s borders.”
During his May 28 speech to graduating West Point cadets, Obama also said he would work with Congress to “ramp up support for those in the Syrian opposition who offer the best alternative to terrorists and brutal dictators.”
Despite denials by the Erdogan government, Ankara has for some time now been suspected by the West, and openly accused by the opposition in Turkey, of supporting Jabhat al-Nusra and other such groups in Syria.
It is no secret among diplomats in Ankara that this group was initially considered by Erdogan and Foreign Minster Ahmet Davutoglu as the most effective force against the Assad regime that they wanted to see toppled.
Ankara was reportedly annoyed when the United States declared the group a terrorist organization in December 2012, arguing that this was a “hasty” decision, given the headway the group was making against the Syrian army.
There was also speculation that Ankara was using Jabhat al-Nusra against Kurdish groups in Syria aligned with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), to prevent them from controlling regions adjoining the Turkish border abandoned by Assad’s forces.
Jabhat al-Nusra’s self-declared jihadist ambitions and the brutal tactics it employed against its enemies, however, moved the UN to also blacklist it in May 2013, increasing pressure on Ankara to distance itself from the group.
Ankara continued, however, to equivocate on this matter, which was also apparent in remarks made by Davutoglu to a group of journalists in Istanbul, including Al-Monitor’s Amberin Zaman, a few days after the UN ban.
Read more: Why Is Jabhat al-Nusra No Longer Useful to Turkey? - US News
The decision to ban Jabhat al-Nusra also comes tellingly less than a week after President Barack Obama announced that aid to Turkey, as well as Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, would be increased so that they can “confront terrorists working across Syria’s borders.”
During his May 28 speech to graduating West Point cadets, Obama also said he would work with Congress to “ramp up support for those in the Syrian opposition who offer the best alternative to terrorists and brutal dictators.”
Despite denials by the Erdogan government, Ankara has for some time now been suspected by the West, and openly accused by the opposition in Turkey, of supporting Jabhat al-Nusra and other such groups in Syria.
It is no secret among diplomats in Ankara that this group was initially considered by Erdogan and Foreign Minster Ahmet Davutoglu as the most effective force against the Assad regime that they wanted to see toppled.
Ankara was reportedly annoyed when the United States declared the group a terrorist organization in December 2012, arguing that this was a “hasty” decision, given the headway the group was making against the Syrian army.
There was also speculation that Ankara was using Jabhat al-Nusra against Kurdish groups in Syria aligned with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), to prevent them from controlling regions adjoining the Turkish border abandoned by Assad’s forces.
Jabhat al-Nusra’s self-declared jihadist ambitions and the brutal tactics it employed against its enemies, however, moved the UN to also blacklist it in May 2013, increasing pressure on Ankara to distance itself from the group.
Ankara continued, however, to equivocate on this matter, which was also apparent in remarks made by Davutoglu to a group of journalists in Istanbul, including Al-Monitor’s Amberin Zaman, a few days after the UN ban.
Read more: Why Is Jabhat al-Nusra No Longer Useful to Turkey? - US News
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