The cost of the Middle Eastern region increases for the world with every passing day. In its initial stage, the Syrian civil war seemed to all states as an equation with an easy solution. The opposition forces were aiming at subverting the Syrian regime and establishing a democratic system in a short span of time while Iran imagined defeating the opposition in cooperation with the Syrian regime before long. Meanwhile, the Western system, which was unable to catch up with the Arab Spring and its immense influence over the region, followed a peculiar method that constantly fluctuated with ever-changing political conjecture. Yet the truth about the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), which was either overlooked or overemphasized by the related states, has turned into one of the principal dynamics of the region.
In my previous columns, I had already written that Iran successfully influenced and directed the leading opinion in the West by arguing the thesis that prophesied al-Qaeda's coming to power after a prospective triumph of the opposition in Syria. The relation of adversity and proximity between the Islamic Republic of Iran, which directly commands Hezbollah after the involvement of ISIS in the Syrian civil war and supports the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed People's Protection Units (YPG) together with the United States, i.e., its own conventional demon, and ISIS may go unnoticed. At first glance, ISIS represents an infinitely radical and fanatic type of Sunni Islam with rigid and frivolous methods while Iran, the representative state of Shiite Islam, has caged itself into its own denomination and the theory of a Shiite crescent. Cooperation between these two powers may be thought ridiculous, but when the Syrian regime was experiencing the threat of collapse, Hezbollah waged war against the Syrian opposition in the west of Damascus while ISIS captured the eastern regions of the city by defeating the Syrian opposition forces. From that day to this, ISIS's military operations toward Kobani, northern Iraq and Turkey had international repercussions. ISIS activities in all these areas are for the benefit of Iran and Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime and against Turkey and northern Iraq.
In addition, under the pretext of fighting against ISIS, Iran has been executing a Shiite population exchange in lands that are mostly populated by Sunni Arabs in Iraq and the northern regions. On the other hand, the PKK and PYD have been carrying out a similar process in the region of Kobani supported by Iran. So although ISIS and Iran seem antagonistic, they act in a manner of supporting each other. A few months ago, when Turkey's theory of an ISIS-free zone started to be discussed, Iranian state officials together with Assad signaled leaving the region of Aleppo to ISIS. It is my conviction that while the necessary sociological ground exists for the existence of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, ISIS seems to be the result of an alliance of intelligence organizations of several states. This organization, composed mostly of foreign fighters, will be vanquished one day, and then we will not be able to see the states behind the organization.
This organization, whose activities from its foundational philosophy to its worldwide image by no means coincide with the spirit of Islam, is an alliance of intelligence organizations of the states desiring to penetrate the region. It would not be whimsical to argue that Iran along with certain Western states exist within the framework of this alliance. All the signals explained above support such an assertion.
About the author
İhsan Aktaş is Chairman of the Board of GENAR Research Company. He is an academic at the Department of Communication at Istanbul Medipol University.
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