The Washington Post quotes Rafik Hariri Center Nonresident Fellow Aaron Stein on why Turkish bases could be a game-changer in the US-led campaign against ISIS:
“The raids are consistent with Turkey’s public comments about viewing the PKK and ISIS as equal threats,” Aaron Stein, a Turkey expert at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, told Bloomberg.
That’s not a view shared in Washington. After all, last year, the United States had airdropped weapons to Syrian Kurdish factions affiliated to a political party that some in Turkey deem “worse” than the Islamic State. Kurdish factions in Syria and northern Iraq, including PKK units, have proved some of the most reliable frontline fighters against the jihadists.