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Maine Sen. King Urges Turkish Participation in ISIS Conflict

WASHINGTON - Maine Sen. Angus King is urging Turkey to participate in the military actions against ISIS forces in Syria, Iraq and along the Turkish border. In an interview with MPBN news, King says Turkey can no longer equivocate on its involvement.

"Some of these countries, like Turkey, are on our side Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and on the other side Tuesday and Thursday,” he said. “They have got to decide whether they are going to facilitate, for example, people traveling through into Syria."

King said Turkey can significantly contribute to the effort, as other nations in the region are doing, by helping with air strikes on ISIS targets in both Syria and Iraq. Turkey has been reluctant to militarily support the attacks on ISIS because of its long border with Syria, and simmering unrest by ethnic Kurds that are on both sides of the border.

"It's really important that this not be our war," King says. "And I was encouraged that there were actually Gulf state fighters involved in the strikes."

King said blocking the ability of ISIS to move oil to the world market will economically hurt the radical group. 

Turkey has been reluctant to take any military action towards ISIS because the group had taken 46 Turkish citizens and three Iraqis hostage in Mosul, Iraq. But Turkey obtained the release of those hostages 10 days ago in a covert operation that has not been fully explained, with some news reports indicating Turkey had swapped prisoners for the hostages.

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Journalist Mal Leary spearheads Maine Public's news coverage of politics and government and is based at the State House.