TURKISH tanks and troops backed by attack helicopters and drones rumbled into Syria over the weekend to repatriate 38 Turkish soldiers guarding the tomb of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire. The intent was to shield the soldiers from potential attack by the jihadists of Islamic State (IS). The shrine lies 30 kilometres south of the Turkish border and skirts one of the jihadists’ main supply lines to the city of Raqqa, the “capital” of their self-proclaimed state. The nocturnal sweep was Turkey's first incursion into Syria since the start of the uprising nearly four years ago.

Syria’s government called the move an act of “flagrant aggression”. The enclave is considered sovereign Turkish territory under a treaty signed between Turkey and France in 1921, when France still governed Syria. But Syria insists that Turkey should have asked its permission before going in. Turkey’s prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, acknowledged that Turkey had not sought permission, but this did not seem to bother him; he called the mission “extremely successful”. Suleyman Shah’s remains, meanwhile, have been relocated to a temporary site closer to the Turkish border.



The move could allow Turkey to play a bolder role in the American-led fight against the jihadists. Turkey’s governing neo-Islamists have so far resisted pressure to let coalition planes use the Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey for strikes against IS targets in Syria, partly for fear of retaliation against its men at Suleyman Shah's tomb. The government has been burned before; last summer, it ignored warnings that IS was about to attack the Iraqi city of Mosul and failed to evacuate its consulate there. The jihadists overran the consulate and took 49 staff hostage. They were freed in a swap that entailed the release of several hundred IS fighters from Turkish jails. “With its soldiers out of harm’s way Turkey will have a freer hand to take part in the coalition, if it so chooses,” says Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a think tank.

Few think that it will, though. IS is believed to have a strong network inside Turkey, and could destabilise the country in the run-up to parliamentary elections due on June 7th. In a secret memo leaked to the Turkish press, the country’s national spy body warned that IS cells within Turkey were plotting to carry out terrorist attacks against the embassies of countries that are part of the anti-IS coalition. It will not have helped that Turkey and America last week signed a deal to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels who are battling IS.

Whether or not the extraction mission leads to stepped-up attacks on IS, it signals a big change in Turkey’s relations with Syria’s Kurds. Kurdish officials say the operation was carried out in collaboration with a Syrian Kurdish militia known as the People’s Defence Units (YPG). The YPG shot to international prominence when it drove IS out of the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane last month, with the help of sustained American air strikes. (The YPG's hundreds of female fighters have also drawn media attention.) The YPG’s online claims to have facilitated this weekend’s operation were backed up by photographs of Turkish tanks and armoured personnel carriers trundling through the streets of Kobane, presumably en route to the Suleyman Shah tomb. Mr Davutoglu did not deny the YPG's statements.



Until recently Turkey dismissed the YPG as “terrorists”. The organisation is closely linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the rebel group that has been fighting on and off for Kurdish self-rule inside Turkey since 1984. Egged on by the PKK, Syrian Kurds have established autonomous cantons which Turkey fears will sharpen Kurdish separatism within its own borders. Turkey has balked at American demands to help the YPG fight Islamists, and indeed the YPG claims Turkey is backing the jihadists against them. These accusations intensified when Turkey refused to open a corridor last October for Kurdish fighters to reach Kobane, at a time when the town was on the verge of falling to IS. In the end, America airdropped weapons to the YPG, leaving Turkey in shock.



The evacuation of Turkish forces from Suleyman Shah's grave certainly gives Turkey more room to help the coalition fighting IS, but it is not clear Ankara wants to take advantage of the opportunity. But either way, any thaw in relations between Turkey and Syria’s Kurds will make it less awkward for America and other countries to pursue the joint battle against the jihadists. More important still, it will help Turkey with the long-delayed process of making peace with its own Kurds.