--- description: After two years of inaction, Turkey has struck back inside its own borders and beyond title: Why Turkey Has Finally Declared War on ISIS image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb7493f2bedaae646/69885c585f570f420bb1c982/turkey-war-isis.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Why Turkey Has Finally Declared War on ISIS ## Video: Why So Many Foreign Fighters Join ISIS [Watch (HLS stream): Why So Many Foreign Fighters Join ISIS](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xvTQSd5R.m3u8) (2:58)  _Published 2014-09-05. A growing number of foreigners is joining the Islamic militant group - but why?_ by [Rebecca Collard / Beirut](/author/rebecca-collard/) ## Rebecca Collard / Beirut Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 24, 2015 4:01 PM CUT  Turkish army tanks hold positions next to an outpost, near the border with Syria, on July 23, 2015. Turkish army tanks hold positions next to an outpost, near the border with Syria, on July 23, 2015.Emrah Gurel—AP by [Rebecca Collard / Beirut](/author/rebecca-collard/) ## Rebecca Collard / Beirut Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 24, 2015 4:01 PM CUT For almost two years, Turkish troops sat idly on the country’s shared border with Syria as Islamic militants increased their territory and fought on the frontier. The Turkish parliament voted in October to allow its military to join the fight against the Islamic State or Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) but little happened. Then, early Friday morning, a squad of Turkish F-16s struck ISIS positions inside Syria. It was a quick and significant change in the country’s actions toward the militants. “ISIS and Turkey had a nearly two-year-long Cold War in which they avoided fighting, with the knowledge that their confrontation would lead to destruction on both sides,” says Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute. “That Cold War is definitely over.” Turkey, a member of NATO, was already a signed ally in the fight against ISIS, but has done little to combat the militants or even restrict their access to Syria through Turkey. Cagoptay says this “open door policy” was meant to allow all fighters who want to oust President Bashar al-Assad into Syria. The Islamist-leaning government in Ankara maintains that Assad is enemy number one in Syria, not his opponents but the U.S.-led coalition has attacked ISIS and al-Qaida-linked groups in Syria but not the Assad regime. “ The Turkish government thinks only fighting ISIS is just dealing with the symptom and not the cause,” says Hakan Altinay, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute. Turkey sees the rise of ISIS as a result of Sunni discontent with Assad’s Alawite regime. The bombing in the Turkish town of Suruc on Monday, which left 32 dead and the death of a Turkish soldier by ISIS fire from Syria on Thursday has made ISIS a immediate threat for the Turkish government. U.S. officials also said on Thursday the Turks have allowed American warplanes to use Turkish bases to attack ISIS. Altinay says that the recent violence was only a trigger, ISIS’s strengthened position on the shared border and sustained pressure from the U.S. were also factors. “I think that there was one too many reasons to get into action,” says Altinay. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the operations against ISIS were not a one-off, but part of a broader strategy. Government forces also arrested more than 200 people in security sweeps across the country. For some the question is why it took so long for the Turks to act against ISIS. Redur Xelil, a spokesman for the YPG, the Kurdish group fighting ISIS in northern Syria, has many times accused Turkey of siding with ISIS. “Turkey is helping ISIS and facilitating their moves in and out of Syria, as well as aiding them in logistics and other levels,” says Xelil. Xelil says he doesn’t trust Turkey’s motivations, believing it to be more of political play than genuine desire to defeat the militants. “All this is connected to the policy of the Turkish state and its interest in pleasing the international community and the world by showing it is against terrorism,” says Xelil. “If the Turkish state was truly serious about fighting ISIS, it would have taken action the day the international coalition was formed.” Turkey has fought a long and bloody war against its own Kurdish separatists. This has complicated the situation in southern Turkey where Turkish troops — many times targeted by the Kurdish separatists — decide what goes in and out of Syria. Some of the 200 people arrested in in these security sweeps were actually Turkish Kurds who were not suspected of being part of ISIS. Some analysts speculated that Turkey might prefer ISIS to an independent Syrian Kurdish state on its border, worried it could further motivate Turkish Kurds to reignite their violent campaign for Kurdish sovereignty on Turkish territory. Just this week Kurdish militants claimed an attack that killed two Turkish troops. But both Cagoptay and Altinay say the delay was Turkey’s desire not to bring the violence of the Syrian conflict onto its territory, despite already hosting more that 1.8 million Syrian refugees. “I think Turkey was between a rock and hard place,” says Altinay of the attempt to balance U.S. pressure to act while not spurring attacks by the militants. US officials have stressed the importance of Turkey’s active participation in the coalition. Not only do does it have a better equipped and more capable military than the U.S.’s other regional anti-ISIS allies, but also bases with proximity to strategic ISIS locations which will be key for both surveillance and military action. “It’s game changing in that it has given the U.S. the military tool box,” says Cagoptay. ### Meet the Kurdish Women Taking the Battle to ISIS  18-year-old YPJ (Women's Protection Unit) fighter Torin Khairegi: “We live in a world where women are dominated by men. We are here to take control of our future. I injured an ISIS jihadi in Kobani. When he was wounded, all his friends left him behind and ran away. Later I went there and buried his body. I now feel that I am very powerful and can defend my home, my friends, my country, and myself. Many of us have been martyred and I see no path other than the continuation of their path." Newsha Tavakolian for TIME  YPJ fighters on their base at the border between Syria and Iraq. Young female fighters are indoctrinated to the ideology of their charismatic leader, Abdullah Ocalan, head of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), who promotes marxist thought and empowerment of women. Newsha Tavakolian for TIME  18 year-old YPJ fighter Saria Zilan from Amuda, Syria: "I fought ISIS in Serikani. I captured one of them and wanted to kill him, but my comrades did not let me. He kept staring at the ground and would not look at me, because he said it was forbidden by his religion to look at a woman." Newsha Tavakolian for TIME  20-year old YPJ fighter Aijan Denis from Amuda, Syria: "Where I am now, men and women are equal and we all have the same thought, which is fighting for our ideology and the rights of women. My three sisters and I are all in YPJ." Newsha Tavakolian for TIME  YPJ members take part in daily combat training at their base in Serikani. Syria. Newsha Tavakolian for TIME  Three YPJ fighters sit in an armed vehicle at their base in eastern Syria, days after returning from the front. Newsha Tavakolian for TIME  YPJ members, including one who was wounded fighting against ISIS in Kobani, Syria, at the all-women Asayesh Security Base in Derek, Syria. Newsha Tavakolian for TIME  16 year-old YPJ fighter Barkhodan Kochar from Darbasi, Syria: "The war influenced me a lot. Before joining YPJ, whenever I asked my family about politics, they'd say 'that's not your business, you're just a girl'. But when I saw how the women of YPJ gave their lives for what they believed in, I knew that I wanted to be one of them." Newsha Tavakolian for TIME  A billboard showing fallen YPJ solders, reading, “With you we live on and life continues.” Newsha Tavakolian for TIME  In Western Kurdistan, the Syrian autonomous region Kurds call Rojava, young people are taught the ideology of the PYD (the Democratic Union Party of Syria), an affiliate of PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party). Many of these young people will soon be drafted into YPJ and YPG armies to fight ISIS. Newsha Tavakolian for TIME  in Syria, graves of YPJ members who were killed fighting ISIS. In the foreground, female fighters are buried together. Newsha Tavakolian for TIME  A picture of 17 year-old Cicek Derek, who died in the besieged city of Kobani, Syria, where her fellow fighters were unable to retrieve her body. Newsha Tavakolian for TIME  Rojin, the sister of 17 year-old YPJ fighter Cicek Derek who died fighting in Kobani, Syria. "When my mother told Cicek, 'Please stay with your mother', she answered 'I left to fight for all the mothers of the world. I cannot stay here'." Newsha Tavakolian for TIME  A scarf belonging to 17-year-old YPJ fighter Cicek Derek, who was killed in Kobani, Syria, was all that could be brought back to her family. Her body remains in Kobani. Newsha Tavakolian for TIME  A wedding dress outside a bridal shop in a town near Qamishlou, Syria. YPG graffiti can be seen on the walls of adjacent buildings. YPJ and YPG members are neither allowed to marry, nor can they have sexual relationships, according their ideology. Newsha Tavakolian for TIME  20 year-old YPJ fighter Beritan Khabat from Derek, Syria. She joined the YPJ four years ago to protect her homeland and put an end to the suppression of women. "I fought ISIS in Jezza and Serikani. Women of YPJ are not scared of ISIS." 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