ISIS wants to go to war with Turkey. ISIS sees their “Caliphate” waging war on Turkey as path to the fulfillment of “end times” prophecies that will bring on “judgment day”. These prophecies, which the religious leaders of the Islamic State take very seriously, involve a battle between “Islam” and “the West” at or near Dabiq on the Syria/Turkey border and the Islamic State conquering of Istanbul which they intend to make the capital of the Caliphate.
Facebook just reminded me that I posted that Turkey would soon be in direct combat with ISIS. I wrote this in response to silly conspiracy theories alleging that Turkey and ISIS are allies.
It is only a matter of time until Turkey is in direct combat with Islamic State. Islamic State ideology involves an “end times” prophecy that Muslims will defeat “Rome” (The West) in a battle at Dabiq (a Syrian town near the Turkish border) and soon after will conquer Constantinople (Istanbul) which will precede the coming of the Mahdi and the return of Jesus (yes the second coming of Jesus who is considered a prophet in Islam is a part of Muslim end times prophecy).
In recent days intelligence agencies have been warning of Islamic State talk of attacks on the tourist sites in Turkey. With Turkey’s recent elections that had some wins for liberals and secularists and recent actions by Turkey to prevent ISIS recruits from entering Turkey to travel to Syria, Islamic State has reasons to want to strike now regardless of the end times prophecies.