While Kurdish forces in Kobani desperately defend the Syrian town against the advances of the militant group called Islamic State (IS), Turkey's military is not yet getting involved. Instead, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems to prefer to watch as the IS conflict weakens the Kurds. His inaction is also troubling his NATO partners. Are the Kurds the pawns in a power game involving Turkey, NATO and the US-led anti-IS coalition? And how reliable a NATO partner is Turkey?

Our guests:

Günter Seufert, German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin

Daniel Gerlach is the founder and editor-in-chief of Zenith, a German magazine focusing on politics, economics and culture in the Middle East.

Bilgin Ayata is an assistant professor of international relations at Berlin’s Free University.

Read more on the topic on http://www.dw.de/program/quadriga/s-7296-9798