Ankara ignores ISIL's declaration of ‘Islamic caliphate’

Sevil Erkuş ANKARA

An image made available by the jihadist Twitter account Al-Baraka news on June 11. AFP Photo

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is a terrorist organization and Ankara does not pay attention to how “a terrorist organization describes itself,” a Turkish Foreign Ministry official has said, following the group’s announcement that it has established an “Islamic caliphate.”

The ISIL jihadists, whose sweeping Sunni militant offensive has captured swathes of Iraq and Syria, declared on June 29 that it had established an “Islamic caliphate” in the territory it controls, as Iraqi forces battle to retake Saddam Hussein’s hometown Tikrit.

ISIL announced that it had reestablished a “caliphate,” an Islamic form of government last seen under the Ottoman Empire, and also said it had changed its name to the Islamic State.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu had a phone conversation with Iraqi Parliament Speaker Nuceyfi on June 30, a day before the Iraqi Parliament gathers for the establishment of a new government.