While Turkey\u2019s leaders were flexing their muscles to intimidate international press and a few critics that had dared to question government\u2019s Syrian policy and as their allies in the \u00a0pro-government \u00a0media was speculating about which western \u00a0power has created the throat-cutting \u00a0jihadis\u00a0 in order to undermine the \u00a0Muslims everywhere; the heavily armed \u00a0ISIS\u00a0 forces, equipped with artillery and tanks, seemed \u00a0to have appeared next door \u2013 well within the sight and earshot of Turkey\u2019s long border with Syria.<\/p>\n
Arrival of thousands of terrified Syrian civilians knocking on Turkey\u2019s door should not have surprised anybody. The latest ISIS attacks on Kurdish villages have been going on since the 15th<\/sup> of September.\u00a0 More than 20 villages had already fallen to ISIS forces. By the time ISIS arrived near Kobane, Syria\u2019s third largest Kurdish town, it was obvious that another humanitarian disaster was in the making.<\/p>\n With ISIS controlling a large area of\u00a0 \u00a0Syria\u2019s northern border region with Turkey, you did not need sophisticated intelligence to see what was coming next. \u00a0How prepared Turkey\u2019s officials were for this latest influx and how efficiently the alarmingly dangerous escalation near the border was tracked beforehand; it is difficult to say.<\/p>\n This much we know. Early on Friday the 20th<\/sup> of September, \u00a0some local Kurds in Dikmetas tried to deliver water and food to the refuges that had massed on the Syrian side of the barbed wire. They demanded that the gates should be opened to let desperate people in. The Turkish security forces responded with their usual tear gas and water cannon.<\/p>\n Clearly, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu did not think it necessary to delay his planned visit to Azerbaijan on the same day.<\/p>\n On Friday, \u00a0the tension was visibly rising \u00a0with every passing hour. \u00a0A Syrian Kurdish woman was reported to have stepped on a mine. \u00a0Flood of refugees continued. \u00a0Finally, after midday, \u00a0the long awaited order from Ankara has finally arrived.<\/p>\n Turkey has done the right thing and decided to open its doors.<\/p>\n Ahmet Davutoglu announced the good news from Twitter: \u201cIf the history brings this obligation upon us, we, the Turkish nation would not shy away from fulfilling our \u00a0historical responsibility. \u00a0We would receive the innocent with open arms\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen our brothers from Syria and elsewhere arrive at our borders to escape death, without any discrimination over their religion or sect, we will take them in and we will continue to take them in”, he later told reporters in Baku.<\/p>\n Turkey\u2019s welcoming of Syrian Kurdish refugees fleeing ISIS can only be applauded. With more than 200 thousand Syrians living in camps and as many as a million and a half living in towns, Turkey\u2019s refugee burden is already massive.<\/p>\n Much can be said about the past mistakes and failures of President Erdogan and his governments. . Now is not the time to dwell on them. \u00a0With the dark cloud of ISIS descending both near Turkey\u2019s borders and in its cities; the danger is real and imminent.<\/p>\n The government needs to take stock of the situation; amend its policies and its aggressive rhetoric. It needs to inform the public better and be accountable for its decisions. We are living in perilous times and no one is immune. Never before in the recent past has the future been so unpredictable.<\/p>\n It is high time to recognize that the predictable responses of the government will no longer be good enough to ensure that Turkey can ride through this latest storm.<\/p>\n (Update- In early hours of Saturday, Mr Davutoglu announced in Baku that\u00a0 the \u00a049 Turkish hostages held by ISIS have been freed, and\u00a0 have arrived \u00a0in Turkey safely and that he was returning to the town of Sanliurfa, near the Syrian border to meet them.)<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While Turkey\u2019s leaders were flexing their muscles to intimidate international press and a few critics that had dared to question government\u2019s Syrian policy and as their allies in the \u00a0pro-government \u00a0media was speculating about which western \u00a0power has created the throat-cutting \u00a0jihadis\u00a0 in order to undermine the \u00a0Muslims everywhere; the heavily armed \u00a0ISIS\u00a0 forces, equipped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}