Turkey is one of the leading countries in the world to have suffered from terrorism. It has been the target of PKK terrorism for years, costing the country more than 40,000 lives and more than $150 billion (TL 331 billion) in damages and security spending. Therefore, it is unthinkable that Turkey should cooperate with terrorists and extremists of the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). As a matter of principle, Turkey would never pay lip service to any terrorist group, especially if these people are defaming the good name of Islam.Those who claim Turkey had a role in the creation and growth of ISIS should understand the reasons why these extremists have gained so much ground. True, everyone in the West as well as Turkey supported the opposition forces in Syria against al-Assad, which allowed ISIS to emerge out of these ranks and turn their guns against the Syrian opposition. Assad then saw the opportunity to divide the opposition by supporting ISIS, hence, the advances of the extremists.Once again, President Obama is saying that Assad should be thrown out of the Syrian equation and the West should help opposition forces. Thanks to the devastating policies of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which severely alienated Sunni Arabs and pushed them to seek radical solutions, ISIS found breeding grounds in Iraq, which has led to the current situation.There is nothing lacking in Turkey's determination to end the dominance of ISIS in Iraq that has become a serious threat to regional security. But the situation has been complicated as ISIS is holding 49 Turkish hostages.These are the staff of the consulate in Mosul and their dependents. ISIS has been holding them, not only as hostages, but seemingly as human shields as well. To further complicate the situation, ISIS dispersed the hostages into smaller groups and sent them to different locations complicating any potential rescue operation.So, Turkey's options and possible actions have seriously been limited to gestures rather than bold actions.The fact that Turkey could not sign the joint declaration of the coalition formed in Jeddah by the U.S. on Thursday is not because Ankara supports ISIS, but because its hands are tied by the hostage situation.The Americans are the best people to understand this situation, as they too had to suffer such problems when Iranians held the U.S. embassy staff hostage during the initial years of the Khomeini rule.U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has to understand and appreciate that Ankara has been pushed into a tricky corner. Yet, there is still much Turkey can do even with its hands ties by the hostage situation.Turkey can provide logistic and other forms of support to those fighting ISIS like the Iraqi Kurds. With the help of Turkey, a contact group of Islamic scholars has been established that can convince the Iraqi Sunni Arabs that supporting ISIS or providing support for it is bringing the supreme values of Islam into disrepute.Additionally, Turkey can recruit the help of the Americans to launch an intricate rescue operation to save the hostages, despite extreme difficulties, and end the hostage situation.Above all, however, Turkey can help transform the militants of the PKK based in the northern Iraq mountains into a fighting force against ISIS, paving the way for their rehabilitation and eventual return to Turkey as those who saved the region from ISIS. This should be regarded as a valuable dividend of the current peace process in Turkey.