Behind the rescue operation

On Sept. 20, Turkish consular officers, who had been held hostage by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) for 101 days after the organization's capture of Mosul, were evacuated. Regardless of the specific details of the affair, rescuing 49 hostages from the hands of an organization that relies on violent means to expand its influence in a part of the world where tens of similar organizations alter their positions and entire cities change hands, represents a major success. Furthermore, it is important the rescue operation took place against the backdrop of an international operation against the ISIS operatives on the ground and widespread speculation about Turkey's role in these activities.

The consular staff in Mosul, Iraq were taken hostage at a time when Turkey's domestic politics were rapidly changing and the ruling AK Party had to live up to a number of tests. The primary question in Turkish politics at the time related to the former Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's potential bid in the upcoming presidential race. A prolonged presidential campaign that effectively started in May 2013 had been particularly tense due to the Gezi Park protests and the Dec. 17 operation. Sure enough, the AK Party was relieved after the local election victory on March 30. At this final part of the presidential campaign, there seemed to be no serious hurdle ahead for Erdoğan and the AK Party.

It was during this period that the consular staff in Mosul were taken hostage on June 11. At the time, Erdoğan's opponents and supporters alike interpreted this development with reference to the country's domestic politics and, in particular, the presidential election. For pro-government commentators, the hostage crisis was the work of domestic and international groups that were unwilling to see Erdoğan in the presidential palace and would proceed to influence the AK Party after the presidential election. They were, meanwhile, equally concerned about the ways in which the hostage crisis would play out.

Erdoğan's opponents, in turn, believed the hostage crisis to be a setup. They claimed that ISIS had taken the consular staff hostage only to release them at a strategic time - which, at first, seemed to be the eve of the presidential election but, considering that the initial prediction proved misguided, they picked another date instead of revising their assessment. ISIS had failed to help Erdoğan's presidential campaign, but the organization could no doubt assist the newly-elected Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu by releasing the hostages right before the AK Party congress where Davutoğlu replaced Erdoğan as chairman. Recently, there has been much speculation about Turkey exploiting the hostage crisis as a convenient excuse to turn down its part in the U.S.-led international operation against ISIS. The fact that the Turkish government rescued the hostages before the U.S.'s devised a conclusive strategy proved these claims wrong.