Maya Arakon (Photo: Today’s Zaman, Mehmet Yaman)

Yes, there is support for ISIL in Turkey but there are expectations from the West from Turkey, too, right?

Turkish leaders cannot condemn terror attacks outside the country while feeding ISIL militants internally. Turkey has made a mistake — thinking that the world does not see this hypocrisy is foolish. Turkey will have to choose its line regarding ISIL internally and externally. However, we have not seen such a will in that direction. Turkish leaders do not even refer to ISIL as ISIL, as the world does, but uses other words to refer to ISIL, including Daesh [the arabic acronym for ISIL] and the DH. Psychologists can explain this better but using different names to refer to the same thing is usually done to complicate and confuse. We lost young people in the Suruç and Ankara attacks and Turkish officials called it a “cocktail attack” committed by ISIL and the PKK. I’ve been studying terrorsim for 20 years and I have not heard such a term as “cocktail terrorism.” Turkey’s first priority should have been a fight against ISIL and not a fight against the PKK because apparently ISIL is more dangerous than the PKK and most certainly poses imminent danger.

With renewed commitment to act against ISIL alongside the United States, do you think Turkey can still insist on acting against the pro-Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD)?

It still does. In domestic politics, this is the card played out all the time but we will see how much Turkey can be insistent on this line. In the international arena, coming against the PYD is laughable as it is the PYD that is the main fighting force against ISIL in Syria.

source: Zaman