The Financial Times quotes Rafik Hariri Center Nonresident Fellow Aaron Stein on Turkey wading into the battle against ISIS in Syria, while launching a broad security crackdown at home:
Turkey’s porous 500-mile border with Syria has acted as a lifeline with the outside world for the group, providing a steady conduit for supplies and foreign fighters.
Aaron Stein, of the Atlantic Council think-tank, said that Turkey “leaving the border open” had been the single most consequential decision for the course of the five-year conflict in Syria, as well as for Turkey’s security.
“The threat of Isis to Turkey is very real,” he said. “Everybody was very aware that fighters were operating within Turkey with impunity up until a few months ago.”