Turkey is now the most dangerous player in the Middle East

Turkey carried out widespread airstrikes in northern Iraq on Monday, concentrating on areas inhabited by the Yazidi minority who are still trying to recover from the genocide perpetrated by the so-called Islamic State, or ISIS.

While Ankara claims it is bombing “terrorists,” the areas on Sinjar mountain that were struck appear to be caves and small structures and Turkey has provided no evidence linking these Yazidis to threats to Turkey.

It is yet one more example of Ankara’s increasingly brazen attempts to cultivate authoritarian rule and extreme nationalism at home while using disproportionate military force abroad, attacking and occupying portions of Iraq, Syria and Libya.

At a time when conflicts from Syria to Libya and Yemen have left countries more divided than ever and without a path to peace or method by which locals might have a say in the future, Turkey, a member of NATO, has played an increasingly destabilizing role in almost all these conflicts.

In November, Ankara signed a deal with Libya’s embattled Tripoli-based Government of the National Accord that secured Turkey claims to a wide swath of the Mediterranean. Placing itself astride Greek and Cypriot waters with talk of a “blue motherland” at sea, Turkey then sent drones to Libya and recruited thousands of poor Syrians to fight as mercenaries for Tripoli, ignoring a U.N. arms embargo. Ankara’s increased involvement had the result of increasing Russia’s support for the Libyan opposition as both sides fueled a deadly proxy war.

Then came Turkey’s decision to flood Syria’s Idlib province with its forces in February 2020 as Turkish-backed Syrian rebel groups clashed with the Syrian regime. After Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib, Ankara decided to turn around and threaten Europe with a flood of refugees if more was not done to support Turkey. Once again, Turkey created a crisis and used desperate Syrians as pawns, just as in Libya.

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