Turkey Mulling Buffer Zone with Iraq, Syria

A Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighter guards a post flying the PKK flag in Makhmur, southwest Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq

The Turkish military, feeling threatened by the emergence of a radical self-declared Islamist state at its doorstep, is considering creating a buffer zone along the country’s border with Syria and Iran, the president said on Tuesday.“The Turkish Armed Forces are working on plans [to create a buffer zone] and will present them to us, and we will decide if it is necessary,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters.

A senior Army officer said headquarters is assessing the merits of a buffer zone, but added the government would make the final decision. He did not comment further.A diplomat dealing with Syria and Iran said that the plan, if endorsed, would mean a defensive take on the Islamic State , not necessarily an offensive one.“We don’t want to militarily engage [the Islamic State]. We want to reinforce our border security in the face of a very unstable zone,” he said.Turkey shares a nearly 900-mile border with its southern and southeastern neighbors Syria and Iraq. Islamic State militants captured large swaths of land in northern Syria and Iraq this summer and has become a “de facto neighbor” of Turkey.

In June, it attacked Turkey’s consulate in Mosul, northern Iraq, and took 49 Turks, including the consul general, hostage. They remain in captivity.“Our intelligence units have been working for three months on this [hostage issue]. We will provide humanitarian support [in the coalition against the Islamic State],” Erdogan said.Last week, after meetings with US state and defense secretaries John Kerry and Chuck Hagel in Ankara, Turkey ruled out any active participation in a fight against the Islamic State. Nor would the country allow the US to use its air base in southern Turkey for attacks against militants, but would allow for humanitarian operations from its soil