WASHINGTON, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - Turkey will not support the supply of the Kurds with heavy weapons, vital for repelling the Islamic State (IS) from the Kobani area, Istanbul-based political analyst Ekrem Eddy Guzeldere told RIA Novosti on Monday.
"Having the choice between the IS or YPG as neighbor, Turkey prefers the IS," the analyst asserted.
He explained that Istanbul not only regards the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) as a branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which it considers a terrorist organization, but also fears that a precedent posed by the local authorities' multilingual policy in the Syrian city of Kobani might be an example for other Kurdish regions, including in Turkey.
Guzeldere noted that Turkey allowed the United States to use the airbase in Incirlik for reasons other than fighting the IS.
"What was agreed to, was the training of Syrian opposition in Turkey, but which groups and where needs still to be decided," the analyst explained.
According to the expert, the use of Incirlik airbase for airstrikes against the IS targets would ease the operations, but in the end it would not be enough to defeat the terrorists.
"They would be logistically easier and most likely therefore could be improved," he said. "However, as we have seen in the past days, the airstrikes can stop the advancement, but they cannot repel IS."
For the past several weeks, the IS fighters have besieged Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, one of the largest towns in the Kurdish region of Syria bordering Turkey.
The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group expanded its attacks to northern and western Iraq and declared an Islamic caliphate on the territories that had fallen under its control. A US-led coalition is currently, carrying out airstrikes against IS positions in Syria and Iraq. A strategy by US President Barack Obama implies the aid to Kurdish fighters and "moderate" Syrian opposition.
