AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
We're going to learn more about the complex relationship between Turkey and ISIS. Joining us to discuss this is Omer Taspinar. He's a professor of national security strategy at the National War College. Welcome to the program.
OMER TASPINAR: Thank you for having me.
CORNISH: Now, for long time, fighters of all kinds in the neighboring Syrian war were crossing in and out of Turkey, right? And that included ISIS fighters. In what ways did they use the country as a base?
TASPINAR: Well, geographic proximity itself was a major factor. Turkey has a very long border with Syria, and a lot of the jihadist fighters who came from the West, especially Europe, basically flew to Istanbul. And the border with Syria is just one bus stop away. Turkey also, for a very long time, turned a blind eye to jihadist infiltration to Syria on the grounds that some of these jihadists were just fighting a tyrannical regime, the regime of Bashar Assad.
And to top that, Turkey was very concerned about Kurdish independence in Syria. There are Kurdish groups in northern Syria, and the Islamists fighting against Bashar Assad were also fighting against the Kurds, who are more secular and nationalist group. So Turkey had reasons in a way to not worry too much about Islamist infiltration of Turkey and Syria, and it paid the price down the line.
CORNISH: What do you consider the turning point when Turkey was no longer turning this blind eye to the activities of ISIS over its borders?
TASPINAR: Mainly when ISIS began to target Turkey itself. When ISIS targeted the Istanbul international airport last summer and killed 50 people, that caused a lot of damage for Turkish tourism, for Turkish economy. So Turkey began to realize that these Islamic groups, these radical Islamic groups, were not really in Turkey's interest in terms of fighting the regime in Damascus or the Kurdish groups in northern Syria.
In my opinion, in that sense, the turning point was when ISIL began to attack Turkey. But as long as ISIL targeted the Kurdish groups, on the other hand, in Turkey, the Turkish government continued to have turned a blind eye to ISIL activities.
CORNISH: Now, there was a time when ISIS wouldn't, like, formally claim credit for terror attacks in Turkey even when officials cited them as responsible. And then this attack over the weekend is being considered the exception. Do you see this as a sign that ISIS has become bolder in antagonizing Turkey?
TASPINAR: I see this as a sign that ISIL no longer wants to have any kind of good relations with the Turkish government. In the past, there was a hope that somehow Turkey could be a country that would help the Islamic cause. And there was a sense that Erdogan was on the right side of the war in Syria, fighting against Bashar Assad. Whereas today, Turkey is not only engaged in a war against ISIL on the ground in Syria, but Turkey has also allied itself with Russia and Iran and has brokered a ceasefire in Syria.
But there's a sense that Turkey's no longer really determined to fight the regime of Bashar Assad. And ISIL has become more determined in hitting not just Kurdish targets but these kind of Turkish targets and making it known that it is them hitting Turkey, which is I think a sign that they're growing more confident.
CORNISH: We've been hearing that Turkish officials are promising to fight a terror threat, and they say that they have the power. They say they have the capacity to take this on. From what we know, do they?
TASPINAR: There is definitely a growing sense of determination in terms of fighting terrorism. However, in the last few months, the Turkish government, the Turkish state has engaged in a major purge of the security and military establishment, including the intelligence community, mainly because a lot of people from the Gulen movement, which is an Islamic movement seen by the Turkish government as the mastermind of the attempted coup last summer - and when you have such a major crackdown with thousands of people being fired, discharged, this is bound to create a certain vacuum, a certain problem in terms of capacity and personnel.
And in that sense, I think Turkey has the political will to fight terrorism, but it is lacking now in terms of human capital, human intelligence and the capacity to fight terrorism more effectively, especially in terms of connecting the dots in terms of these intelligence problems.
CORNISH: Omer Taspinar is a professor at the National War College and a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution. Thank you for coming in.
TASPINAR: Thank you.
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