TURKEY is key to defeating Daesh and stabilising Syria – but is “undermining the global battle” by bombing Kurds, MPs say.

In a report released just hours after Ankara destroyed 11 Kurdish targets in northern Iraq, the Foreign Affairs Committee criticised President Tayyip Erdogan’s “brutal suppression” of the Kurds. It also accused the UK Government of “turning a blind eye” to Erdogan’s actions in exchange for Turkish cooperation in EU plans to send Syrian refugees back from Greece.

Last night the Turkish Embassy in London failed to respond to the report. However, committee member Stephen Gethins MP insisted progress could not be made unless Turkey ends strikes against Kurds in the region. Gethins, who represents North East Fife, said: “Turkey is absolutely key to this but it has to change its behaviour.

“As Brussels has shown, when you have got a threat like Daesh you are talking about people committing murder in the streets of Europe as well as acts of genocide in Syria against the Yazidis and Christian groups.

“There has to be a huge diplomatic push to get some form of diplomatic solution so the focus goes back onto taking land back from Daesh.

“One of the most important things is going to be a stable Turkey and Turkey adhering to the rule of law and having a much more constructive relationship with its Kurdish minority.”

“We have to start putting pressure on Turkey. The Kurds are making real progress against Daesh and yet they are being bombed by the Turkish Government. In the west we tend to forget how extremely multi-ethnic that region is. It is very complicated and we need to take things forward with care.”

The complexity crosses regional, political and ethnic boundaries.

All-female fighting units of Syrian Kurds drew international attention for their efforts against Daesh and the US-backed Peshmerga soldiers are considered among the most effective opposition to the organisation.

Associated with Syria’s main Kurdish political party, the People’s Protection Units, or YPD militia, have also been praised for their successes.

But while various armed Kurdish groups are fighting Daesh, Turkey is targeting them as part of a long-running internal struggle.

A ceasefire in 2013 between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is calling for the creation of an autonomous Kurdish state, ended last July after two police officers died in attacks by PKK supporters.

The attacks were motivated by Turkey’s apparent complicity in a devastating bomb attack against Kurds by Daesh.

An estimated 3,000 people have died in the reignited insurgency, and despite the efforts of members of the international community, Turkey has also conducted artillery barrages and airstrikes on YPD forces in northern Syria.

The Foreign Affairs Committee has accused Erdo?an of pursuing “shameful”, “regressive” and possibly illegal policies against the Kurds for electoral gain in a strategy which is “working directly against shared international priorities”. The report said: “The Committee is concerned that the EU’s relations with Turkey are being dominated by the issue of refugees, one of the results of the conflict, while avoiding the more difficult issues of Turkey’s direct role in the conflict.”

Committee chair Crispin Blunt said: “The shameless actions of the Turkish president in furthering his own domestic agenda cannot be allowed to continue.

“The UK appears to be turning a blind eye to Turkey’s brutal suppression of the Kurds – almost certainly in return for Turkish co-operation on EU migration priorities.

“The UK should spearhead raising with Turkey their behaviour on the Kurdish issue, their airstrikes against the Syrian Kurds, their suppression of internal dissent and freedom of speech, and their destructive role in the political process.”

Responding to the report, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Daesh has lost 40 per cent of the territory it once controlled in Iraq and “significant” territory in Syria is “collapsing”.

He added: “Turkey and our other partners in the region all have a crucial role to play.”