Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for the establishment of a “secure zone” inside Syria to repatriate Kurdish refugees who fled to Turkey to escape an Islamic State onslaught. Erdogan, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Istanbul last night, said Turkey “can’t stay out” of the U.S.-led coalition against the al-Qaeda breakaway. He said any offensive strategy must also strengthen rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom Turkey seeks to oust. His remarks capture the clashing interests that have kept Turkey out of the alliance so far and strained relations with Turkish Kurds that he has labored hard to repair. While Erdogan says he wants to see the al-Qaeda breakaway vanquished, that could come at the cost of benefiting Assad and strengthening the hand of Kurdish separatists on both sides of the border. Kurds in Turkey suspect Erdogan wants to create a militarized buffer zone along part of […]