Turkey: The Missing Link?
... States to use two of its military air bases, including the NATO Incirlik Air Base in the south of the country – the culmination of several months of negotiations between Washington and Ankara on the use of Turkish territory in the fight against ISIS in Syria. What is more, on July 25, the Turkish Air Force attacked PKK positions in Northern Iraq. This was the first attack of its kind since 2011, when Turkey bombed the region for six consecutive days. The Turkish police ended up detaining hundreds of armed Kurds and Islamists. The July 20 attack demonstrated that the military operations being carried out by Kurds and jihadists in Syria and Iraq have spread to Turkish territory. The events of July 2015 exposed two interconnected security issues. The July ...