But in an unexpected twist, Turkey abruptly began bombing Kurdish rebels in Iraq, where Kurds have proven unusually capable of wresting back territory from the extremist Sunni militant group known as the Islamic State, or Daesh in Arabic.
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A new wave of violence included the killing of three Turkish troops that the army said was carried out by Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants, the deadliest such attack on the security forces since the crisis began last week.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Fox said: “I don’t think it’s healthy for the coalition against Isis that the United States is carrying out some 90 per cent or more of all the air strikes”.
But Turkey’s stepped up presence in to the global fight against the Islamic State has its own serious set of complications.
NTV television said that overnight eight Turkish F-16s had been seen taking off from their base in Diyarbakir on possible new raids in northern Iraq.
“The AK Party is dragging the country into a period of conflict, seeking revenge for the loss of its majority in the June election”, Demirtas said.
“Parliament could stop this war in 48 hours if it wanted”, HDP lawmaker Osman Baydemir told the parliament. “That’s the real aim of the steps taken now”, the PKK said in an e-mailed statement.
In a statement published on Wednesday, the HDP called Erdoğan’s demand to strip parliamentarians of their immunity “a civilian coup” and called on all 550 MPs to volunteer and have their immunities lifted in response.
In the battle against IS, the Syrian Kurds have been among the most effective ground forces and have been backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, but Turkey fears a revival of the Kurdish insurgency in pursuit of an independent state. “He would run there if he found the opportunity”.
Pro-Kurdish politicians have warned that Turkey’s simultaneous attacks on PKK targets are threatening the peace negotiations with the Turkish government starting in 2012.
What’s still missing is a coherent U.S. strategy for ending the civil war in Syria – something that will be necessary for the ultimate destruction of the Islamic State.
The Kurds are an ethnic group with their own language living in a region spanning present-day Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia. While the party is ideologically linked to the PKK, it denies being a branch of the group that has been labelled a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU.
The PKK has said the air strikes, launched virtually in parallel with Turkish strikes against Islamic State fighters in Syria, render the peace process meaningless.
The YPG could then move further west and eventually link up the Kobani and Afrin “cantons”, zones in northern and northeastern Syria that are under Kurdish control.
Now Turkish warplanes are attacking both ISIS and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) who Turkey considers a terrorist threat on par with the Islamic State, but its main target has largely been the Kurds.
At least twelve members of the security forces have been killed over the past week by suspected Kurdish militants.
The operation only concerns Daesh and does not include air support for Kurdish People’s Protection Unit’s (YPG) in Syria, Bilgic said.
A shaky ceasefire that had stood since 2013 was declared as null by the PKK following the Turkish airstrikes against the group, narrowing chances of the two sides reaching a deal any time soon.
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The sudden change of course in recent days has raised questions in Western capitals over whether Ankara, fearful of seeing a Kurdish state emerge on its southern border, is more interested in limiting Kurdish capabilities than in tackling IS.
