Is Turkey collaborating with the Islamic State (ISIS)? Allegations range from military cooperation and weapons transfers to logistical support, financial assistance, and the provision of medical services. It is also alleged that Turkey turned a blind eye to ISIS attacks against Kobani.
President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu strongly deny
complicity with ISIS. Erdogan visited the Council on Foreign
Relations on September 22, 2014. He criticized "smear campaigns
[and] attempts to distort perception about us." Erdogan decried,
"A systematic attack on Turkey's international reputation,
"complaining that "Turkey has been subject to very unjust
and ill-intentioned news items from media organizations."
Erdogan posited: "My request from our friends in the United
States is to make your assessment about Turkey by basing your
information on objective sources."
Columbia
University's Program on Peace-building and Rights assigned a team of
researchers in the United States, Europe, and Turkey to examine
Turkish and international media, assessing the credibility of
allegations. This report draws on a variety of international sources
-- The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Daily
Mail, BBC, Sky News, as well as Turkish sources, CNN Turk, Hurriyet
Daily News, Taraf, Cumhuriyet, and Radikal among others.
Allegations
Turkey
Provides Military Equipment to ISIS
• An
ISIS commander told The
Washington Post on
August 12, 2014: "Most of the fighters who joined us in the
beginning of the war came via Turkey, and so did our equipment and
supplies."
• Kemal
Kiliçdaroglu, head of the Republican People's Party (CHP), produced
a statement from
the Adana Office of the Prosecutor on October 14, 2014 maintaining
that Turkey supplied weapons to terror groups. He also produced
interview transcripts from
truck drivers who delivered weapons to the groups. According
to Kiliçdaroglu,
the Turkish government claims the trucks were for humanitarian aid to
the Turkmen, but the Turkmen said no humanitarian aid was delivered.
• According
to CHP Vice President Bulent Tezcan, three
trucks were stopped in
Adana for inspection on January 19, 2014. The trucks were loaded with
weapons in Esenboga Airport in Ankara. The drivers drove the trucks
to the border, where a MIT agent was supposed to take over and drive
the trucks to Syria to deliver materials to ISIS and groups in Syria.
This happened many times. When the trucks were stopped, MIT agents
tried to keep the inspectors from looking inside the crates. The
inspectors found rockets, arms, and ammunitions.
• Cumhuriyet reports that
Fuat Avni, a preeminent Twitter user who reported on the December
17th corruption probe, that audio tapes confirm that Turkey provided
financial and military aid to terrorist groups associated with Al
Qaeda on October 12, 2014. On the tapes, Erdogan pressured the
Turkish Armed Forces to go to war with Syria. Erdogan demanded that
Hakan Fidan, the head of Turkey's National Intelligence Agency (MIT),
come up with a justification for attacking Syria.
• Hakan
Fidan told Prime
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Yasar Guler, a senior defense official, and
Feridun Sinirlioglu, a senior foreign affairs official: "If need
be, I'll send 4 men into Syria. I'll formulate a reason to go to war
by shooting 8 rockets into Turkey; I'll have them attack the Tomb of
Suleiman Shah."
• Documents surfaced on
September 19th, 2014 showing that the Saudi Emir Bender Bin Sultan
financed the transportation of arms to ISIS through Turkey. A flight
leaving Germany dropped off arms in the Etimesgut airport in Turkey,
which was then split into three containers, two of which were given
to ISIS and one to Gaza.
Turkey
Provided Transport and Logistical Assistance to ISIS Fighters
• According
to Radikal on
June 13, 2014, Interior Minister Muammar Guler signed a directive:
"According to our regional gains, we will help al-Nusra
militants against the branch of PKK terrorist organization, the PYD,
within our borders...Hatay is a strategic location for the mujahideen
crossing from within our borders to Syria. Logistical support for
Islamist groups will be increased, and their training, hospital care,
and safe passage will mostly take place in Hatay...MIT and the
Religious Affairs Directorate will coordinate the placement of
fighters in public accommodations."
• The
Daily Mail reported on
August 25, 2014 that many foreign militants joined ISIS in Syria and
Iraq after traveling through Turkey, but Turkey did not try to stop
them. This article describes how foreign militants, especially from
the UK, go to Syria and Iraq through the Turkish border. They call
the border the "Gateway to Jihad." Turkish army soldiers
either turn a blind eye and let them pass, or the jihadists pay the
border guards as little as $10 to facilitate their crossing.
• Britain's
Sky News obtained documents
showing that the Turkish government has stamped passports of foreign
militants seeking to cross the Turkey border into Syria to join ISIS.
• The
BBC interviewed villagers,
who claim that buses travel at night, carrying jihadists to fight
Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq, not the Syrian Armed Forces.
• A
senior Egyptian official indicated on
October 9, 2014 that Turkish intelligence is passing satellite
imagery and other data to ISIS.
Turkey
Provided Training to ISIS Fighters
• CNN
Turk reported on July 29, 2014 that in the heart of Istanbul, places
like Duzce and Adapazari, have become gathering spots for terrorists.
There are religious orders where ISIS militants are trained. Some of
these training videos are posted on the Turkish ISIS propaganda
website takvahaber.net. According to CNN
Turk,
Turkish security forces could have stopped these developments if they
had wanted to.
• Turks
who joined an affiliate of ISIS were recorded at
a public gathering in Istanbul, which took place on July 28, 2014.
• A
video shows an
ISIS affiliate holding a prayer/gathering in Omerli, a district of
Istanbul. In response to the video, CHP Vice President, MP Tanrikulu
submitted parliamentary questions to the Minister of the Interior,
Efkan Ala, asking
questionssuch
as, "Is it true that a camp or camps have been allocated to an
affiliate of ISIS in Istanbul? What is this affiliate? Who is it made
up of? Is the rumor true that the same area allocated for the camp is
also used for military exercises?"
• Kemal
Kiliçdaroglu warned the
AKP government not to provide money and training to terror groups on
October 14, 2014. He said, "It isn't right for armed groups to
be trained on Turkish soil. You bring foreign fighters to Turkey, put
money in their pockets, guns in their hands, and you ask them to kill
Muslims in Syria. We told them to stop helping ISIS. Ahmet Davutoglu
asked us to show proof. Everyone knows that they're helping ISIS."
(See HERE and HERE.)
Turkey Offers
Medical Care to ISIS Fighters
• An
ISIS commander told the Washington
Post on
August 12, 2014, "We used to have some fighters -- even
high-level members of the Islamic State -- getting treated in Turkish
hospitals."
• Taraf reported on
October 12, 2014 that Dengir Mir Mehmet Fırat, a founder of the AKP,
said that Turkey supported terrorist groups and still supports them
and treats them in hospitals. "In order to weaken the
developments in Rojova (Syrian Kurdistan), the government gave
concessions and arms to extreme religious groups...the government was
helping the wounded. The Minister of Health said something such as,
it's a human obligation to care for the ISIS wounded."
• According
to Taraf,
Ahmet El H, one of the top commanders at ISIS and Al Baghdadi's right
hand man, was treated at a hospital in Sanliurfa, Turkey, along with
other ISIS militants. The Turkish state paid for their treatment.
According to Taraf's sources, ISIS militants are being treated in
hospitals all across southeastern Turkey. More and more militants
have been coming in to be treated since the start of airstrikes in
August. To be more specific, eight ISIS militants were transported
through the Sanliurfa border crossing; these are their names:
"Mustafa A., Yusuf El R., Mustafa H., Halil El M., Muhammet El
H., Ahmet El S., Hasan H., [and] Salim El D."
Turkey
Supports ISIS Financially Through Purchase of Oil
• On
September 13, 2014, The
New York Times reported on
the Obama administration's efforts to pressure Turkey to crack down
on ISIS extensive sales network for oil. James Phillips, a senior
fellow at the Heritage Foundation, argues that Turkey has not fully
cracked down on ISIS's sales network because it benefits from a lower
price for oil, and that there might even be Turks and government
officials who benefit from the trade.
• Fehim
Taştekin wrote in Radikal on September 13, 2014 about illegal
pipelines transporting oil from Syria to nearby border towns in
Turkey. The oil is sold for as little as 1.25 liras per liter.
Taştekin indicated that
many of these illegal pipelines were dismantled after operating for 3
years, once his article was published.
• According
to Diken and OdaTV, David Cohen, a Justice Department
official, saysthat
there are Turkish individuals acting as middlemen to help sell
ISIS's oil through
Turkey.
• On
October 14, 2014, a German Parliamentarian from the Green
Party accusedTurkey
of allowing the transportation of arms to ISIS over its territory, as
well as the sale of oil.
Turkey Assists ISIS Recruitment
• Kerim
Kiliçdaroğlu claimed on
October 14, 2014 that ISIS offices in Istanbul and Gaziantep are used
to recruit fighters. On October 10, 2014, the mufti of Konya said
that 100 people from Konya joined ISIS 4 days ago.
(See HERE and HERE.)
• OdaTV reports that
Takva Haber serves as a propaganda outlet for ISIS to recruit
Turkish-speaking individuals in Turkey and Germany. The address where
this propaganda website is registered corresponds to the address of a
school called Irfan Koleji, which was established by Ilim Yayma
Vakfi, a foundation that was created by Erdogan and Davutoglu, among
others. It is thus claimed that the propaganda site is operated from
the school of the foundation started by AKP members.
• Minister
of Sports, Suat Kilic, an AKP member, visited Salafi jihadists who
are ISIS supporters in Germany. The group is
known for reaching out to supporters via free Quran distributions and
raising funds to sponsor suicide attacks in Syria and Iraq by raising
money.
Turkish
Forces Are Fighting Alongside ISIS
• On
October 7, 2014, IBDA-C, a militant Islamic organization in Turkey,
pledged support to ISIS. A Turkish friend who is a commander in ISIS
suggests that Turkey is "involved in all of this" and that
"10,000 ISIS members will come to Turkey." A Huda-Par
member at the meeting claims that officials criticize ISIS but in
fact sympathize with the group (Huda-Par, the "Free Cause
Party", is a Kurdish Sunni fundamentalist political party). BBP
member claims that National Action Party (MHP) officials are close to
embracing ISIS. In the meeting, it is asserted that ISIS militants
come to Turkey frequently to rest, as though they are taking a break
from military service. They claim that Turkey will experience an
Islamic revolution, and Turks should be ready for jihad.
(See HERE and HERE.)
• Seymour
Hersh maintains in the London
Review of Books that
ISIS conducted sarin attacks in Syria, and that Turkey was informed.
"For months there had been acute concern among senior military
leaders and the intelligence community about the role in the war of
Syria's neighbors, especially Turkey. Prime Minister Recep Erdogan
was known to be supporting the al-Nusra Front, a jihadist faction
among the rebel opposition, as well as other Islamist rebel groups.
'We knew there were some in the Turkish government,' a former senior
US intelligence official, who has access to current intelligence,
told me, 'who believed they could get Assad's nuts in a vice by
dabbling with a sarin attack inside Syria - and forcing Obama to make
good on his red line threat."
• On
September 20, 2014, Demir Celik, a Member of Parliament with the
people's democratic party (HDP) claimed that
Turkish Special Forces fight with ISIS.
Turkey
Helped ISIS in Battle for Kobani
• Anwar
Moslem, Mayor of Kobani, said on September 19, 2014: "Based on
the intelligence we got two days before the breakout of the current
war, trains full of forces and ammunition, which were passing by
north of Kobane, had an-hour-and-ten-to-twenty-minute-long stops in
these villages: Salib Qaran, Gire Sor, Moshrefat Ezzo. There are
evidences, witnesses, and videos about this. Why is ISIS strong only
in Kobane's east? Why is it not strong either in its south or west?
Since these trains stopped in villages located in the east of Kobane,
we guess they had brought ammunition and additional force for the
ISIS." In the second article on September 30, 2014, a CHP
delegation visited Kobani, where locals claimed that everything from
the clothes ISIS militants wear to their guns comes from Turkey.
(See HERE and HERE.)
• Released
by Nuhaber, a
video shows Turkish
military convoys carrying tanks and ammunition moving freely under
ISIS flags in the Cerablus region and Karkamis border crossing
(September 25, 2014). There are writings in Turkish on the trucks.
• Salih
Muslim, PYD head, claims that
120 militants crossed into Syria from Turkey between October 20th and
24th, 2014.
• According
to an op-ed written by
a YPG commander in The
New York Times on
October 29, 2014, Turkey allows ISIS militants and their equipment to
pass freely over the border.
• Diken reported,
"ISIS fighters crossed the border from Turkey into Syria, over
the Turkish train tracks that delineate the border, in full view of
Turkish soldiers. They were met there by PYD fighters and stopped."
• A
Kurdish commander in Kobani claims that
ISIS militants have Turkish entry stamps on their passports.
• Kurds
trying to join the battle in Kobani are turned
away by
Turkish police at the Turkey-Syrian border.
Turkey
and ISIS Share a Worldview
• According to
the Hurriyet
Daily News on
September 26, 2014, "The feelings of the AKP's heavyweights are
not limited to Ankara. I was shocked to hear words of admiration for
ISIL from some high-level civil servants even in Şanliurfa. 'They
are like us, fighting against seven great powers in the War of
Independence,' one said." "Rather than the [Kurdistan
Workers' Party] PKK on the other side, I would rather have ISIL as a
neighbor," said another."
• Cengiz
Candar, a well-respected Turkish journalist, maintained that
MIT helped "midwife" the Islamic state in Iraq and Syria,
as well as other Jihadi groups.
• An
AKP council member posted on
his Facebook page: "Thankfully ISIS exists... May you never run
out of ammunition..."
Mr.
Phillips is Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at
Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights. He
served as a Senior Adviser and Foreign Affairs Expert for the U.S.
Department of State.
Ongelofelijk mensen, wat een zooitje, moet u nagaan:gisteren durfde Obama Rusland de les te lezen, door te stellen, dat Rusland IS moet aanvallen en niet de 'gematigde rebellen' (lees: een stel psychopathische moordenaars)........ Rusland heeft in de korte tijd, dat het Assad steunt in de strijd, gigantisch veel meer IS doelen uitgeschakeld, dan de VS in meer dan één jaar.............. Waar je bij moet bedenken, dat de VS o.a. via Turkije mee heeft geholpen, met de meeste zaken, waarvan Turkije wordt beschuldigd, in bovenstaand artikel......
Zie ook: 'Erdogan, de kalief van Turkije, wil oorlog met Rusland....... De NAVO applaudisseert aan de zijlijn....'
en: 'Helga Salemon: Putin verdraait de boel weer, nu i.z. de door de Turken neergehaalde straaljager.......'
en: 'Timmermans is trots op zijn 'vluchtelingen onderhandelingen' met de Turken........ AUW!!!'
Zie ook: 'Erdogan, de kalief van Turkije, wil oorlog met Rusland....... De NAVO applaudisseert aan de zijlijn....'
en: 'Helga Salemon: Putin verdraait de boel weer, nu i.z. de door de Turken neergehaalde straaljager.......'
en: 'Timmermans is trots op zijn 'vluchtelingen onderhandelingen' met de Turken........ AUW!!!'
en: 'Erdogan vroeg aan de Russen om bewijs voor Turkse olie afname van IS en dat kreeg hij!'
en: 'Turkije valt Noord-Irak binnen, kortom een oorlogsverklaring aan het adres van Irak, gesteund door de NAVO en haar meester de VS.........'
Voor meer berichten over/met ISIS (= IS), al-Nusra, Al Qaida, terreur, jihadstrijders, religieus radicalisme, Turkije, Koerden, Erdogan, AK Partij, Rusland, VS, wapenhandel en/of Obama, klik op het desbetreffende label, onder dit bericht.
