It would be very useful, and I would just point out that Turkey is a NATO member. That's really important. That's a very valuable connection.
The Turks are obviously very concerned, more on their western border with Syria, because that's the most populated in terms of both Turks and Syrians. You can see why they've put most of their investment into monitoring the western part of their border. Their eastern border is pretty much a no man's land, and people do cross very easily, especially locals. Those individuals, on both sides of the border—again, Kurds and Turks—are complicit in this trade. They benefit. There are a lot of middlemen and a lot of warlords who are gaining money out of this.
I think it's important to understand that the Turks would be willing to have.... It's not in their interest and I don't think that despite a lot of the media's unfavourable portrayal of the Erdogan government, which is warranted for other reasons, that it's in Erdogan's interest or in Davutoglu's interest to have this border being so porous. The challenge is simply manning it. They don't have the resources to do that, and more importantly, they are consumed with the threat of the two million to three million Syrian refugees who are going to trickle over their border, and that's on the western side. They are more focused on that.
They've been calling for a buffer zone inside Syria. It's an absolutely fantastic idea. We need to do more to provide a safe space for Syrians in their own country, which I think is vital if we're going to talk about long-term security. I remember testifying to this very same point. You need to put these humanitarian buffer zones within the border of Syria. Doing that will protect the long-term stability of not just Turkey but also Lebanon and Jordan, which increasingly—and I say this having come back from the region just a few weeks ago—are really under strain. We cannot afford to lose those three allies.