By Walid Shoebat (Shoebat Exclusive)

At the moment, a critical debate is raging in Turkey about a Turkish Special Forces (TSF) detachment posted about 20 miles inside Syria to guard the Tomb of Suleiman Shah, an extraterritorial Turkish enclave.

As predicted, Turkey is using ISIS to create a fiasco over the Suleyman Shah tomb. ISIS has made advances on areas near the Syrian border with Turkey, despite airstrikes by a US-led coalition and reports show that 1,100 ISIS fighters are facing 50-60 Turkish soldiers guarding the corpse at the mausoleum surrounding the tomb of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, Osman the First as reported by Turkish government newspaper “Yeni Safak”.

Other reports say that ISIS have taken hostage 20 Turkish soldiers who were guarding the tomb without any resistance, but such reports were denied.

This prompted President Tayyip Erdogan who said that the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad remained a Turkish priority and stressed Ankara’s fears that U.S.-led air strikes without a broader political strategy would only prolong the instability accusing Assad of stoking the growth of Islamic State through sectarian policies.

So how does the regular American Joe process all this?

The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) is known to destroy tombs and sacred temples held dear to Christians and Muslims in Iraq and Syria because the buildings, they claim, are idolatrous. Joe should ask, how come Turkey only now fears over the corpse of Suleyman Shah when ISIS never destroyed an Ottoman corpse and only blew up every other corpse that was not Ottoman?

He should ask, are these two (ISIS and Turkey) in cahoots? In April, we can even see leaked videos showing the ISIS flag flying freely while ISIS even allowed the transportation of Turkish armored vehicles, tanks and soldiers to guard the tomb of Suleyman Shah while one can even see the ISIS black flag fluttering on the 1:50 mark:

Does it make any sense that ISIS will allow Turkey to position such troops with sophisticated equipement at the tomb if it intends to blow it up? And why such ease of movement by Turkey despite that Turkey and ISIS are supposed to be foes?

Also, is it far-fetched to say that the government, by saying “the Tomb of Suleiman Shah is part of Turkish soil,” is trying to capitalize on the growing sentiments of neo-Ottomanism in the country and thus obtain the support of a majority of the population?

In short, the tomb is needed by the Turkish government to keep the army in check and to motivate it to enter Syria in the near future; to obtain support of the public after the parliamentary approval; and, finally, to better defend in the international arena its justification for intervening in Syria and is why the Turkish government has no intention of evacuating the tomb before the Syrian campaign expected in late October.

It is obvious that such a small number of Turkish troops, no matter how well they are trained, cannot resist ISIS indefinitely, but sacrificing two little pawns (a corpse and a few soldiers, if indeed they will be sacrificed) is worth it for Erdogan’s longterm plan to invade Syria. Turkey is insisting to keep the situation going and refuses to remove the small regiment guarding the tomb despite that the chief of General Staff and the TSF command are burning the midnight oil to persuade political decision-makers to decide on evacuation which the political calculus of the government contradicts these efforts. Some analysts believe that the risk the government is taking, however, is a major one. If not properly managed and if calculations are not made correctly, the fate of 50 to 60 Turkish soldiers at the tomb can cast dark shadows on the “New Turkey” ideal of the Davutoglu government, not unless this is all an arrangement between ISIS and the Turkish government.

Turkey is insisting to enter Syria and put troops on the ground and has prevented the Kurds from fighting ISIS under the guise that they too threaten Turkey. When Erdogan blames Syria for “stoking the growth of Islamic State through sectarian violence” he is looking for reason to blame Assad for ISIS and he is trying to gain Muslim support that the neo-Ottomans are the answer in order to stop the sectarian divide and the bloodshed between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, of course, since the Turkish Model of Islam as it is touted throughout the Arab and Muslim world is the Sufi brand of Islam and is what can unite Shiite and Sunnis (Iran and Turkey) against Israel.

Joe should always look at the big picture, that is, Erdogan wants a repeat of history at the battle of Marj Dabiq, so he can proclaim himself Selim I and Sulaiman The Magnificiant and Muhammad II Al-Fateh,  (Muhammad the Conqueror) and is why we reported on the Dabiq/ISIS plan last week since it was easy to read the writing on the wall.