EU Calls On Turkey To Open Border For Supplies To Kobani Under ISIL Attacks

The EU has urged Turkey to open its borders for humanitarian supply to Kobani where an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) suicide bomber detonated a car laden with explosives on Monday.

“The EU appreciates efforts by Turkey to shelter refugees from Kobani and calls on Turkey to open its border for any supply for the people of Kobani,” read a statement released after a meeting of the EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday.

ISIL continues to shell the Syrian border town. “A fighter inside Kobani said two car bombers detonated their explosives in the city's eastern industrial area. One killed two Syrian Kurdish fighters, and the other was shot at by Kurdish forces and detonated explosives before reaching intended targets, said the fighter, who can't be named for security reasons,” said CNN.

In a major policy shift, Turkey has announced that it is assisting peshmerga forces to cross into Kobani to fight against the radical ISIL upon the request of US officials; meanwhile, the US air-dropped small arms and medical aid to the Kurdish fighters in Kobani over the weekend.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Monday that Turkey is helping the Iraqi Kurdish forces to cross into the Syrian border town of Kobani to fight against ISIL. “We never wanted Kobani to fall,” said Çavuşoğlu during a joint press conference with visiting Tunisian Foreign Minister Mongi Hamdi in Ankara.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, ISIL won ground from the Syrian government on Tuesday. Reuters reported that ISIL won territory from Syrian government forces in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, its first gain there in about two months.

In the meantime, the UK has announced that it will deploy drones to Syria to gather intelligence. “The deployment will see the Royal Air Force aircraft gathering intelligence as the UK ramps up efforts to protect our national interests from the terrorist threat emanating the country,” read a written statement of the British Ministry of Defense on Tuesday.

Turkey has been reluctant to join the coalition and has called for the establishment of a safe zone and a no-fly zone inside Syria. In addition, Turkey insists on the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying the Assad regime is first and foremost responsible for creating an atmosphere that is fertile for radical groups such as ISIL to emerge.

The US administration has been pressing hard to obtain expanded access to İncirlik Air Base in Adana province, which is in close proximity to ISIL targets inside both Syria and Iraq. So far Turkey has accepted the role of training the moderate Syrian opposition inside Turkey, but negotiations over basing rights for military operations against ISIL are still ongoing, with a military team from the US in Ankara.

Turkey is hosting about 1.5 million Syrian refugees, and the intense clashes in the border town of Kobani have prompted a new wave of refugees. Another host country for large numbers of Syrian refugees, Lebanon, said it is no longer receiving any Syrian refugees except for those with immediate humanitarian needs, according to reports in the foreign media over the weekend.

Meanwhile, according to a Reuters report, Pope Francis will travel to Turkey next month, the Vatican said on Tuesday, his first visit to the predominantly Muslim country which has become a refuge for Christians fleeing persecution by ISIL militants in neighboring Syria and in Iraq. During his three-day visit, the pope will meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. He will also meet Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the Istanbul-based spiritual leader of the Orthodox churches that make up the second-largest Christian church family after Roman Catholicism.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)