Mosul Question

"No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come," said Victor Hugo famously. True, nothing is as powerful as something whose time has come. The same applies to Turkey's "Mosul question."

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan definitely wants Turkey to be part of the Mosul operation and has the support of nationalists and Islamists alike. For the former, this is a matter of national honor because they believe Mosul belongs to Turkey by birthright.

Turkey has called on the international community to start drafting an international plan for Mosul to ensure the city is governed by mainly local groups, a senior government official has said, underlining that Ankara was ready to take all measures to avoid any attempted ethnic cleansing after the region is cleared of jihadists.