Kerry's Visit To Ankara

In Turkey nowadays, almost every political development provokes grand polemics. US Secretary of State John Kerry's official visit to Ankara last Friday was no exception.
As you may recall, the NATO allies have recently agreed to degrade and destroy the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and the US has urged Arab countries to join the anti-ISIL coalition. Ten of them have accepted, and they have signed up to a declaration endorsing the effort against the terrorist group. Turkey, as a NATO member, will naturally be a part of this coalition. Ankara didn't sign the Jeddah Declaration, however, as it does not want to play too active a role. This position has been found controversial by some.
A heated debate erupted in Turkey over the government's refusal to sign the declaration, and some people have claimed that Kerry traveled to Ankara to press the Turkish government to show more determination. Moreover, these people have also claimed that the reason behind the Turkish government's "reluctance" is the latter's secret support for ISIL. Saying that Turkey is sponsoring a radical Islamist terror group is, indeed, a severe allegation.
Everyone knows that the Turkish government has backed armed opposition groups in Syria in an effort to overthrow the Baath regime in Damascus. One shouldn't think that Turkey helped those opponents without consulting its NATO allies first. The problem is, the composition of the Syrian opposition has seriously changed since the beginning of the uprising. Turkey is entirely aware of this truth. Ankara failed to act quickly at the right moment in the Syrian case, and this should be criticized; but Turkey is definitely not a country that would antagonize its NATO allies and several Arab countries by supporting a brutal terrorist group.
It seems, nevertheless, that the Turkish government is much more interested in the post-ISIL period than the fight against ISIL itself. It is not a bad idea to think about what will happen to Syria once the ISIL threat is eliminated. Some of the ISIL militants will probably remain in the field and pursue their fight against the Syrian regime, and they will probably integrate other opposition groups once ISIL is destroyed. Those "normalized" militants may also start cooperating with the Syrian Kurds, something Turkey would encourage.
If Turkey adopts a too active military role against ISIL, it will be impossible for it to play the mediator role in the aftermath of the international operation. However, one always needs relatively neutral players in this region.
During the meetings with his Turkish counterparts, Kerry probably mentioned possible scenarios for the future and discussed how Turkey can contribute. There is no reason for the US to put pressure on Turkey, as Ankara is already on board with the anti-ISIL coalition. Of course this doesn't mean Turkey will participate in the coalition's efforts by sending war planes. France seems quite eager to send its soldiers, so maybe we should leave the military part of the intervention to them. Anyway, France is thousands of kilometers away from the theater of operations; but Turkey is, and will always be, a neighbor to Iraq and Syria.
Turkish officials have probably asked Kerry what he thinks about Bashar al-Assad's personal future. Turkey feels it has been fooled once, and it definitely doesn't want to be fooled twice: Turkey's allies had encouraged Ankara to support the Syrian opposition, but they refused to play their part at the critical moment. Turkey wouldn't like to see that happen again.
Kerry has probably given reassurances to Turkey during his visit and explained what the US intends to do once the ISIL threat is eliminated. This has nothing to do with pressuring or threatening Turkey.

BERİL DEDEOĞLU (Cihan/Today's Zaman)