Turkey and ISIS Now Descend into Open War

ISIS claimed responsibility for a savage attack in Turkey where a gunman opened fire and killed some 39 people and injured dozens more on New Year's Eve in Istanbul.

According to this article ISIS and Turkey did have an "live and let live" attitude towards each other through 2014 and 2015.  But that is now over.

The massacre targeting New Year's Eve revelers at an Istanbul nightclub illustrates that the relationship between ISIS and Turkey has shifted from an uneasy peace to an all-out war, according to experts.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the shooting, identifying the attacker who killed 39 people as "a heroic soldier of the caliphate." The group said the rampage had been carried out "in response to a call" from its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, although it didn't say whether it directed or merely inspired the perpetrator. They did not identify the attacker by name or provide proof he was acting on their behalf.

Michael Horowitz, director of intelligence at Middle East-based political risk consultancy Prime Source, suggested that Sunday's attack signaled that ISIS had initiated "open war" with Turkey, which boasts NATO's second-largest military.

Throughout 2014 and part of 2015, Turkey and ISIS had "an implicit understanding," according to Fawaz Gerges, the author "ISIS: A History." Their mutual approach was live and let live, he added.

During that period, Ankara prioritized unseating Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over direct engagement in the war against the Sunni militants.

In Sept. 2014, Turkey managed to negotiate the release by ISIS of 49 hostages who had been captured at the country's consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. ISIS is not the type of group to give up hostages in exchange for nothing. No details were made public, but some observers suspect a quid pro quo of some type — perhaps a tacit non-aggression pact.

"If ISIS had any political vision or imagination, it would have maintained that non-aggression pact with Turkey," Gerges said.

In  the following months, Turkey did little to impede the flow of foreign fighters passing through its borders on the way join ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

And despite international pressure, Turkey didn't join the fight against the terrorist group, even as the horrors it perpetrated became ever more brutal.

See it here;  http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/turkey-isis-istanbul-attack-signals-descent-open-war-n702611

One has to wonder if Turkey's open war on ISIS will end up drawing Russia and Turkey CLOSER TOGETHER in preparation for the Ezekiel 38 coalition?

Ezekiel 38
4 I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army—your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords.

I believe it's an old Arab saying...."Your enemy's enemy is my friend."