TheTurkey–Islamic State conflict are a series of attacks and clashes between the state ofTurkey and theIslamic State. Turkey joined theWar against the Islamic State in 2016, after the Islamic State attacks in Turkey. TheTurkish Armed Forces'Operation Euphrates Shield was aimed against both the Islamic State and theSDF. Part ofTurkish-occupied northern Syria, aroundJarabulus andal-Bab, was taken after Turkey drove the Islamic State out of it.
Turkey like some other countries, such asFrance[34] and theUK[34] uses the name DAEŞ, DEAŞ, or DAİŞ, which is the group'sArabic acronym for (Dawlat al-Islam fil-Iraq wal-Sham) which the Islamic State considers as aderogatory insult. The Turkish abbreviation for the Islamic State is IŞİD (Irak ve Şam İslam Devleti).[35][36]
Ever since the foundation of the Islamic State in June 2014, numerous Western media reports and thePKK have stated that Turkey collaborated with and supported the Islamic State.[37][38][39][40] Several of the allegation have focused on Turkish businessman and politicianBerat Albayrak, who has faced calls for his prosecution in the United States.[41][42]
In June 2014, when the Islamic State kidnapped 49 Turkish diplomats from the Turkish consulate inMosul, a columnist said that Turkey now was "paying the price of its collaboration with terrorists", with "terrorists" referring to theIslamist factions in theTurkish-backed FSA.[43]
Some news websites in late 2014 also criticised Turkey for "doing nothing" against the Islamic State.[44][45]
In April 2018 an article was published byForeign Policy in which it was stated that in 2013 alone, some 30,000 militants illegally crossed into Turkish land, establishing the so-called "jihadi highway", as theSyria–Turkey border was popular among foreign volunteers illegally crossing it to join the Islamic State in Syria. Furthermore, it was claimed that wounded Islamic State militants were treated inprivate-owned hospitals across southeastern Turkey. Among those receiving care was one of the top deputies of Islamic State chieftain Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Ahmet el-H, who was treated in a private hospital inSanliurfa in August 2014.[46]
According toCHP Vice PresidentBülent Tezcan, three trucks loaded with weapons atEsenboğa Airport inAnkara were stopped for inspection inAdana on January 19, 2014. The trucks were allegedly intended to be handed over to aMIT agent for transport to Syria for ISIS and other groups. Inspectors reportedly found rockets, arms, and ammunition, despite attempts by MIT agents to prevent examination.[47]
American websiteAl-Monitor stated in June 2014 that Turkey, by "ignoring its own border security", had allowed its border with Syria to become a "jihadist highway" for the Islamic State to let thousands of international jihadists, and other supplies, be smuggled to them in Syria.[48][49] British newspaperThe Guardian stated that Turkey, in late year 2014, "for many months did little to stop foreign recruits crossing its border to ISIS".[50]
On 12 August 2014, an ISIS commander toldThe Washington Post that "most of the fighters who joined us in the beginning of the war came via Turkey, and so did our equipment and supplies.”[47]
A joint communiqué, issued 11 September 2014 by the United States and 10 Arab states, to stop the flow of volunteers to the Islamic State was not signed by Turkey present at the meeting. Turkey not signing the communiquè may have been caused by the fear that the Islamic State would have executed the 49 Turks which they had hostage in Mosul.[51]
On 29 November 2014, reports emerged of the Islamic State fighters allegedly launching an assault onKobanî from Turkish territory.[52] Kurdish sources in Kobanî alleged that Islamic State fighters attacked Kobanî from Turkish territory, and that the assault began with a vehicle driven by a suicide bomber coming from Turkish territory. During the attack, a group of Islamic State fighters were seen atop granary silos on the Turkish side of the border.[53][54] According to the German news outletDer Spiegel, Islamic State fighters also attacked YPG positions near the border gate from Turkish soil.[55] According toSOHR, YPG fighters in turn crossed the Turkish border and attacked ISIL positions on Turkish soil, before pulling back to Syria. Soon afterwards, the Turkish Army was deployed and cleared both out from the border crossing and silos area.[56] The Turkish government rejected all those claims.
Turkish Prime MinisterAhmet Davutoglu later claimed that "Turkey is the first country which designated ISIS as aterrorist organization and refuted the allegations which claimed Turkey had involvement in the Kobanî attacks."[57]
On 11 May 2013, twocar bombs exploded in the town ofReyhanlı,Hatay Province,Turkey, close to the busiest land border post (Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing) withSyria. 51 people were killed and 140 injured in the attack,[58] the deadliest single act of terrorism to occur on Turkish soil[59][60] up until then—to be surpassed by the 10 October2015 Ankara bombings with 102 mm.
Who is responsible for the attack is, as of yet, unclear: politicians, authorities, media, suspects have named at least six possibilities. The Islamic State, during late September 2013, suddenly claimed the 11 May 2013 attack. In response to the attacks and claim, the Turkish government sent air and ground forces to increase the already heavy military presence in the area.[61]
On 28 January 2014, the Turkish air force, according to few sources, performed an airstrike on Syrian territory hitting a pickup, a truck and a bus in an Islamic State convoy, killing 11 militants andemir Abu Ja'afar ad-Daghistani.[62][63][9] Conflicting reports however said it was fire from Turkish tanks and artillery hitting the Islamic State vehicles, after mortar shells had accidentally landed in Turkey.[64]
On 20 March, three Islamic State militants emerging from a taxi opened fire with anAK-47 (some reports sayGlock automatics) and lobbed a hand grenade, killing aGendarmerie soldier and a policeman who were conducting routine checks on theUlukışla–Adana expressway, and injuring four Gendarmerie.[65] The attackers were wounded in return fire but got away. Two of the attackers were apprehended at Eminlik village, where villagers, thinking they were wounded Syrian civilian refugees, took them to the local medical clinic. Benyamin Xu (German), Çendrim Ramadani (Swiss) and Muhammed Zakiri (Macedonian) were all sentenced to life in prison for the attack.[66]
In June 2014, Turkey officially designated the Islamic State and theal-Nusra Front as terrorist organizations.[43]
Also on 11 June 2014, the Islamic State captured the Turkish consulate in Mosul and held all of its 49 workers as hostages.[65][67] This happened during theJune 2014 takeover of Mosul.
The hostages were freed in mid-September 2014 after Turkish authorities had paid theransom and swapped the hostages for 180 Islamic State militants who had been apprehended after being illegally in Turkey for medical treatment.[68] Turkey had denied paying the ransom.[69][70]
On 5 September 2014, Turkey entered a US-led coalition,CJTF–OIR vowing to 'join forces to fight ISIL'.[71]
During early November 2014, in a move that surprised many, Turkish soldiers began trainingPeshmerga fighters in northern Iraq. A Turkish official referred to it 'as part of the [shared] struggle against ISIL'.[72]
On 6 January 2015, a bomb is detonated in Istanbul'sSultanahmet Square. One police officer got killed while another officer was injured.[65]
Previously in March 2014, the Islamic State had threatened to attack theTomb of Suleyman Shah (the grandfather ofOsman I), although they were not near the area. In early 2015, it was reported that the Islamic State was coming closer to the tomb site,Turkey on 21 February 2015 decided send a military convoy of a hundred armored vehicles and 570 troops, and remove the tomb and place it some 27 km northward, still inSyria but much closer to the Turkish border.
On 5 June 2015, just 48 hours before theJune 2015 general election, two separate bombs exploded at an electoral rally in Diyarbakır held by the pro-KurdishPeoples' Democratic Party (HDP). Four were killed and dozens were injured.[65] TheDokumacılar were blamed for the attack.
On 20 July 2015, the municipal cultural center inSuruç in the southeasternprovince of Şanlıurfa was bombed. 34 people, mostly university-aged students planning to reconstruct the Syrian border town ofKobanî, were killed and more than 100 people were injured.[65] The Islamic State claimed the attack a couple of days later.[73] According to journalist Serkan Demirtas, this attack might have been the attack in which Turkey considered a "declaration of war" from the Islamic State and began taking them much more seriously afterwards.[74]
On 22–23 July, the U.S. reached an agreement with Turkey for American warplanes striking the Islamic State inSyria to be stored in the Turkish air bases atİncirlik inAdana Province andDiyarbakır inDiyarbakır Province.[75] Turkey confirmed the deal on 24 July.[76] US Gen. Joseph L. Votel, head of the Pentagon's Special Operations Command, on 24 July thanked Turkey for its permission to use the Turkish air bases: "It provides additional flexibility and agility in addressing this enemy ISIL (...) It also means that Turkey has taken another step forward in being more committed to helping us."[77]
On 23 July 2015 at 13:30local time, five gunmen, identified by the Turkish military as being Islamic State militants, attacked a Turkish border outpost in the border town ofElbeyli,Kilis Province, killing one Turkish soldier (Yalçın Nane[78]) and wounding five.[75][79][80]
In reaction, Turkish forces chased the militants into Syria,[citation needed][81] and Turkish tanks and artillery shelled Islamic State strongholds in northern Syria, killing at least one militant and obliterating a number of vehicles.[75][80]
Turkish tanks also bombarded a small (abandoned[81]) Syrian village north ofAzaz,Aleppo, in which the Islamic State militants were thought to be hiding, and killed or wounded several of the militants who were trying to take cover there.[citation needed][80][81]
Around 7 pm on 23 July, reports stated that 100 Islamic State militants had been killed, but those reports were criticised by anti-government newspapers.[82][83][84] TheTurkish Armed Forces later stated that all five militants who had attacked the Turkish army in Elbeyli had been killed.[85]
On 24 July 2015, the Turkish, English-language newspaper/websiteHürriyet Daily News, referring to anonymous "Turkish sources", reported that the deal, made public by theUnited States the previous day, in which Turkey gave permission to the US to use Turkish air bases, came with the US agreeing to let Turkey set up a "partial no-fly zone" in NorthernSyria of 90 km wide, between Syria'sMare' andJarabulus, 40 to 50 km deep.[86][87]
Neither Turkey nor the US has officially confirmed the deal on the Turkish buffer zone – a no-fly zone protected by Turkish and CJTF–OIR forces – which would provide a safe haven for refugees and deny theSDF access to crucial territory.[50] In the no-fly zone,SAA jets will not be permitted,Hürriyet stated.[50][86]
Hürriyet Daily News suggested on 24 July that the no-fly zone was intended to "prevent radical groups such as ISIL or the (...)al-Nusra Front from gaining the mentioned land".[86] While no official statement was released on the supposed deal on a 'no-fly zone', the BritishThe Guardian speculated the deal to be part of Turkey's preoccupation with "thwarting Kurdish separatist ambitions inlawless parts of Iraq and Syria" and a prelude to the US allowing a possible Turkish military action against theYPG in the area.[50]
Turkish websiteHürriyet Daily News on 25 July, again referring to unmentioned "sources", changed their earlier narrative and vocabulary.[88] Their story now ran as that Turkey and the US had agreed on an "ISIL-free zone" in northern Syria, 98 kilometers long betweenMare' andJarabulus and 40 km deep, an area at that moment largely under Islamic State control, from which the US and Turkey planned to eliminate all "jihadist terrorists".[88] That goal would be pursued by air strikes mainly by the U.S., for which the US had been given permission (on 23 July) to use the Turkish air base İncirlik; Turkey would, if necessary, assist with long-range ground artillery.[88]
The unmentioned 'sources' now reportedly had stressed that the zone shouldnot be called a 'security zone' nor a 'safe zone' nor a 'no-fly zone' because such names might give the wrong impression to the Syrian government that the Turkish-American objective in this area was to fight the Assad government.[88]
The 'sources' reportedly had further stated that Turkey and the US planned that the zone, once cleared from the Islamic State presence, would be handed to theFree Syrian Army, which would prevent theAANES'PYD-led government from taking control of the region and at the same time create a safe zone for Syrian refugees.[88]
On 24 and 25 July, Turkey carried out three waves of airstrikes on the Islamic State inSyria. These attacks were motivated as an effort to prevent a planned attack on Turkey[77] and to be a "safeguard [for the Turkish] national security". Considering its name 'Martyr Yalçın', it is likely a revenge for an alleged Islamic State attack the previous day killing a Turkish soldier named Yalçın Nane.
Two Islamic State headquarters and a gathering point, and several more Islamic State locations were struck, and reportedly 35 militants dying; some TurkishF-16 jets thereby violated Syrian airspace. But according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, Turkish troops killed 11 IS militants.[89]
On 25 July, Turkey engaged inpolice raids in 22 provinces in Turkey targeting suspected members of the Islamic State, thePKK, theDHKP/C and PKK's youth wing YGD/H.[90][91]
590 suspects from all of the groups targeted had been arrested by 25 July. The arrests included one Islamic State member who was allegedly in the middle of planning a suicide bombing inKonya.[92][93][94]
The 10 October2015 Ankara bombings cost the lives of 107 people,[65] more than 500 were injured. The responsibility is not yet clear; the government on 12 October pointed at the Islamic State but refused the possibility of PKK involvement, likely because the protest was aimed at achieving peace between the PKK and Turkey.[95]
In the 4th issue of the Islamic State'sRumiyah, the Islamic State referred toRecep Tayyip Erdoğan andNecmettin Erbakan (one of Turkey's most famous Islamists) as ‘tawaghit’ and called their supporters ‘kuffar’ and called for people to ‘ask Allah for help and attack Turkey’ as well as to ‘stab those who supportAK Party’.[96]
Turkish forces at Iraq'sBashiqa camp killed 17 Islamic State militants when the group attacked the camp with rocket fire andassault rifles. This was the third attack by the Islamic State on the Turkish base. In the camp, Turkey had been training an armed group of Sunni locals to fight the Islamic State.[97]
On January 12, 2016, an Islamic State suicide bomber committed the2016 Istanbul bombing in Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet Square, killing 12 people. All of the victims killed were foreign citizens (11 Germans, 1 Peruvian). In response to the bombing, the Turkish Army commenced tank and artillery strikes on Islamic State positions in Syria and Iraq. Turkish authorities estimate that these 48 hours of shelling killed nearly 200 Islamic State militants.[98]
On March 19, asecond Islamic State suicide bombing took place inIstanbul'sBeyoğlu district. The attack killed four[99] and wounded 36 people.[100][101] On March 22, theTurkish interior minister said that the bomber had links with the Islamic State.[102]
On March 20, theGalatasaray–Fenerbahçe derby game was postponed due to fears of a suspected Islamic State plot to attack the stadium similar to theattack in Paris in November of the previous year.
On April 22, three people were killed and six others were wounded when Islamic State rocket projectiles hit the border province of Kilis.[103]
On April 24, two rockets fired from Islamic State territory hit Kilis. 16 people were wounded, six of whom were Syrian citizens.[103]
On April 25, theGeneral Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces had announced that eight militants of the Islamic State were killed the same day when Turkish artillery units shelled a missile launcher.[104] Also, the same day the CJTF–OIR hit the Islamic State in northern Syria, located directly across from the southeastern province of Kilis.[105]
On April 26, according to the Turkish army, two missile launchers belonging to the Islamic State were destroyed in an artillery strike which also killed 11 Islamic State militants. This was the second such initiative by the Turkish Army in the past two days.[106]
On April 27, according to Turkish sources, 13 Islamic State militants were killed when Turkish artillery units shelled a building in the Duwaibik region to the north of Aleppo. The building used by Islamic State militants collapsed, killing 13 militants inside and injuring another seven. Around 150Katyusha rocket projectiles stored on the ground floor of the building were also destroyed. The same day Turkish artillery units also shelled two missile launchers and killed 11 Islamic State militants.[107]
On April 28, five mortar shells targeting a border military post in the Karkamış district of theGaziantep Province were fired by the Islamic State. 11 Islamic State militants were killed in Turkish artillery shellings following the attack according to Turkish sources.[108]
On April 29, two rocket projectiles fired by the Islamic State hit the border province of Kilis in Turkey.[109]
On December 23, the Islamic State released a video which went viral, showing two captured Turkish soldiers, Fethi Şahin and Sefter Taş, being burned alive. The video caused an uproar in Turkey.[110]
On January 1, a gunman entered a nightclub in Istanbul and killed 39 people.
On 6 February, about 820 Islamic State suspects, most of them foreign nationals in Turkey illegally, were arrested in at least 29 provinces, including capital Ankara and southeastern provinces during the past week, reported byAnadolu Agency.[111]
On November 4, 2019, Turkish communications director Fahrettin Altun stated that Rasmiya Awad, Baghdadi's lesser-known older sister, had been captured. According toReuters, citing Turkish officials, Awad was captured in a raid on ashipping container in the Turkish-controlled Syrian town ofAzaz and that Turkish authorities were interrogating her husband and her daughter-in-law who they also detained. When captured, she was also accompanied by five children. "We hope to gather a trove of intelligence from Baghdadi's sister on the inner workings of ISIS," Altun stated. Little information is available on Baghdadi's sister and Reuters was not immediately able to verify if the captured individual was her.[112][113]
In 2021, Turkey extended its military presence in various African countries to fight against theIslamic State's Sahil Province,ISWAP, andISCAP.[114][115]
Turkey claimed to have arrestedAbu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, who was the third leader of the Islamic State. This turned out to be false[2]
In 2023, Turkey and the United States took joint action to further disrupt financing of the Islamic State.[116]
Turkey claimed in April that Turkish forces had killedAbu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi in Syria, however in August, the Islamic State said that Quraishi was killed during clashes againstTahrir al-Sham, whom it accused to be agents of Turkish intelligence.[36] The United States believes the Tahrir al-Sham is behind the killing despite Tahrir al-Sham's denials.[37][38]
On September 22, Turkish police announced the arrest of 10 people with links to the Islamic State inİzmir after intelligence revealed hidden explosives manufacturing supplies.[117] On December, the TurkishPolice arrested at least 304 people suspected of links to the Islamic State during simultaneousraids conducted across the country.[118]
On January 28, 2024, two Islamic State gunmen (a Tajik and a Russian) entered theChurch of Santa Maria, aRoman Catholic church located inSarıyer, Istanbul, and shot at churchgoers, killing 52 year old Tuncer Cihan.[119][120]
On April 16, 2025, Turkish authorities arrest 89 individuals suspected of being affiliated with the Islamic State during coordinated security operations in 17 provinces, includingIstanbul,Antalya,Gaziantep,Hatay andVan.[121][122]
In September 2025,Turkishpolice arrest 161 people suspected of being members of theIslamic State (IS) and seizeunlicensed weapons and IS documents in raids in 38provinces, includingIstanbul andAnkara.[123]
On the morning of September 8, 2025,a mass shooting occurred at the Salih Isgoren police station in theBalçova district ofİzmir, Turkey. Leaving 3 police officers dead, and 4 people injured.[124]
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