Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War

Security experts and ministers gather in Madrid on July 27 for two days of UN-sponsored talks on how to stop radicals leaving their countries to join armed jihadist groups abroad.

Turkey and the United States have agreed on a military action plan with the objective of clearing the Turkish-Syrian border of jihadist terrorists in what the two countries have called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-free zone. 

For the first time, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) opened fire on Turkish territory. For the first time, the Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) attacked ISIL within Turkey.

For the first time, Turkey conducted air operation against ISIL. And for the first time, Turkey will open the ?ncirlik airbase for U.S. warplanes.
Let?s try to understand what?s happening.

This column on July 22 cited the deadly suicide bomb attack that killed 32 youngsters in the town of Suruç in the province of ?anl?urfa on the Syrian border as a declaration of war by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Turkey. 

Turkey will take all measures necessary to stem threats targeting its borders, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Friday.

"All precautions will surely be taken without further order if any terrorist organization or others approach the borders of the Turkish Republic in a threatening way," Davutoglu told reporters in Ankara, according to Turkey's Anadolu news agency.

U.S. President Barack Obama has said that his country has been working with Turkey and Jordan to stop the flow of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants into Syria.

Turkey plans to take yet another turn by flying surveillance balloons and building a two-fenced border system with a new moat as part of its efforts to beef up its border security with Syria, after accusations from the international community of not doing its best to stem the flow of foreign fighters from Turkey to its neighbor.

Turkish security forces have detained nearly 600 ISIL members in six months and arrested 102 of them, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Ar?nç said in a press conference on July 22.

By 2015, the number of Turkish nationals who had joined ISIL was between 1,000-1,300, including those killed, officials told the Hürriyet Daily News. 

It must have been difficult for the Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu to feel the need to defend the government against speculations that it had relations with the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), as he strongly condemned the July 20 terrorist bomb attack in the Turkish Syrian-border town of Suruç, which has killed 32 so far and wounded nearly 100 and was ?probably?

Efforts by Israel and Turkey to restore their once strong relationship could be helped by the common threats they face from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants and Iran, a senior Israeli diplomat said on July 21.