What Did Turkey Give ISIS in Exchange for Hostages?

By Metin Turcan, Contributor for Al-Monitor - Turkey admitted to an exchange with the Islamic State for their hostages, but questions remain on what Turkey promised in return.

The circumstances of the release of the 49 Turkish hostages in Mosul by the Islamic State (IS) are widely questioned. So, how was their release accomplished?

 President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York attracted much attention, especially when he said, “It is of course not possible to reach this result without having discussions. You do have contacts, but who does it, or how does it work? When we say the word "operation," people only think of airstrikes, bombs, aircraft, weaponry. But an operation isn't only that. Operations are political sometimes, or diplomatic, or civilian. And they involve discussions, contacts.”

 Erdogan's remarks reinforced suppositions of an exchange of hostages. According to a report by daily Hurriyet’s Deniz Zeyrek — citing reliable sources — in exchange for Turkish hostages, a group that included the wife and children of Abdulhamed al-Abidi al-Deilimi, a senior commander of the al-Qaeda-Iraq wing of Abu Musab Zarqawi who was killed in Aleppo last January, was released to the Islamic State (IS).

 The Syrian outfit that released this group of IS prisoners was the Liwa al-Tawhid Brigades, a leading proponent of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria that operated under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). Liwa al-Tawhid first made a name for itself by claiming responsibility for the July 18, 2012, bomb attack in Damascus that killed relatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and senior Syrian officials.

Read full story on US News

Journalists attacked by Erdogan's bodyguards in NY, media outraged

Turkish and international media representatives have expressed outrage following the announcement that Washington-based Turkish journalists Adem Yavuz Arslan and Ali Aslan were forced out of the lobby of a hotel in New York and attacked by the bodyguards of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday.

According to Arslan, the Washington representative of the Bugün daily two advisors of President Erdoğan said, “your existence is a crime,” in reference to journalists critical of the government.

Yavuz and Aslan, the Washington representative of the Zaman daily, were trying to report on the meeting between Erdoğan and US vice president Joe Biden in the Peninsula Hotel in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Turkish Leader Erdogan's Misstep in NYC

By  Stephen Schlesinger - The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has a problem. Through his battles at home in recent years to ward off criminal investigations of his administration, his insistence on dismissing wiretaps that show he and his aides involved in backroom threats against opponents, his decision to fire or imprison police and judicial officials whom he thinks are influenced by an overseas foe, his willingness to crush demonstrators who oppose his willful rehabbing of downtown Istanbul and his crackdown on journalists, he is getting a reputation as a mistrusting, authoritarian and sometimes paranoid leader -- despite his recent election to the top office in his country.

His appearance today before the august Council on Foreign Relations in New York City did nothing to allay those concerns. In a speech that was supposedly aimed at promoting Turkey's interests, Erdogan came off as a defensive and suspicious man, who sees conspiracies everywhere and feels misunderstood by everybody and thinks he is threatened from all sides. Here is a list of the central points he made in his address at the afternoon session at the Council:

Is TİKA funding radical Islamists?

By Emre Uslu - The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) likes to take special pride in the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA). This agency is implementing various projects in different places around the world. It restores historic monuments and lends support to civil society organizations (CSOs). TİKA projects even make Turkey the third-largest assistance-providing country after the US and UK. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently spoke of this fact as a source of pride during his visit to the US.

The TİKA projects were generally advertised as efforts to revive historic monuments that were legacies of the Ottoman Empire. For instance, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Mosque, Kosovo's largest mosque, in Pristina, was renovated thanks to a TİKA project. In Kosovo, there are dozens of mosques that have been repaired by TİKA. They are financing these projects with our taxes, but this expenditure is sufficiently justified.

Whom does TİKA really help? The answer to this question can be found in the recent crackdown on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the al-Nusra Front in Kosovo. A few days ago, the Kosovo police launched an operation against radical Islamic groups in the country. Thirty imams were taken into custody on charges of sending jihadists to Syria and Iraq. Many of them were arrested. Sixteen foundations and associations were shut down on charges of aiding and abetting members of ISIL, the al-Nusra Front and other al-Qaeda-linked organizations.

Why didn't they listen to Erdogan?

by Aydogan Vatandas - President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has become an international figure; it is probably the first time so many people outside Turkey know the name of the country's president since the presidency of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of Turkey.

However, during his UN summit speech yesterday, many of the seats in the hall were empty, and it is safe to say that Erdoğan spoke only to a small group of listeners.

The main reason for this shift is the fact that Erdoğan has already lost his credibility in the world even though he still has some support on the ground in Turkey. The last two elections in Turkey can be considered an indication that he still has the support of the majority of Turkish voters even though he has already made the country less democratic and openly vows to continue this process.

Why did ISIL agree to give up the hostages?

By Emre Uslu - The “hostage crisis” between Turkey and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is one of the most mysterious and bizarre “crises” that any nation could face. When the Turkish Consulate General in Mosul was seized and 49 people -- including Turkish diplomats and security personal -- were taken by ISIL, many people asked why the consulate hadn't been evacuated.

Conflicting statements were released; after that, then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan confidently stated that Turkey would take the hostages with ease, as if they were not in the hand of the most brutal terrorists. Many people believed that it was a political saga that both the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and ISIL had agreed upon rather than a real hostage-taking.

A new strategy against ISIL

Photo: Reuters

by Haluk Özdalga - In the face of brutal massacres and the territorial gains of the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant (ISIL), US President Barack Obama recently outlined a “comprehensive strategy.” Under his plan, in brief, the Iraqi Army, Kurdish peshmerga and the moderate opposition militias in Syria, all operating on land, will finish off ISIL with the help of American airpower. This proposed military solution is based on an incomplete perception of the jihadist Salafis as being merely a fanatical mob of rebels.

Even in pure military terms, this strategy is insufficient. The present unprofessional Iraqi army, created after the Saddam-era one was disbanded by the US, is little more than an employment agency, as we saw through the repeated debacles it has suffered from ISIL forces since the end of 2013. Transforming the new Iraqi Army into an effective combat force in just a handful of months is a very tough task. As for the Kurds, they probably won't want to fight outside their own territory, for if they spread their forces out they could lose what they have now. In Syria, it is an illusion to believe that there may be a moderate opposition capable of defeating both Bashar al-Assad's army and the jihadist Salafis.

Muslim voices against ISIS Rita Cosby discusses Fethullah Gulen’s stern stance

Islam: Peace or Terror | Fethullah Gulen's Response - Who is Fethullah Gulen?

ISIS Draws a Steady Stream of Recruits From Turkey

By CEYLAN YEGINSU, SEPTEMBER 15, 2014-Having spent most of his youth as a drug addict in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Turkey’s capital, Can did not think he had much to lose when he was smuggled into Syria with 10 of his childhood friends to join the world’s most extreme jihadist group.

After 15 days at a training camp in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto headquarters of the group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the 27-year-old Can was assigned to a fighting unit. He said he shot two men and participated in a public execution. It was only after he buried a man alive that he was told he had become a full ISIS fighter.

“When you fight over there, it’s like being in a trance,” said Can, who asked to be referred to only by his middle name for fear of reprisal. “Everyone shouts, ‘God is the greatest,’ which gives you divine strength to kill the enemy without being fazed by blood or splattered guts,” he said.

Hundreds of foreign fighters, including some from Europe and the United States, have joined the ranks of ISIS in its self-proclaimed caliphate that sweeps over vast territories of Iraq and Syria. But one of the biggest source of recruits is neighboring Turkey, a NATO member with an undercurrent of Islamist discontent.

Read full article on New York Times

Fethullah Gulen condemns ISIL atrocities in ads in leading newspapers

Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen, who resides in Pennsylvania, placed ads in leading US newspapers on Wednesday to condemn the atrocities of the terrorist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

In the ads, which appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, Gülen said the actions of ISIL -- referred to in the ad as ISIS, another name it goes by -- are a “disgrace to the faith they proclaim and crimes against humanity.”

How was Obama's red line crossed?

Photo: Reuters

by Aydoğan Vatandaş - Allegations made by America's most highly regarded investigative reporter, Seymour Hersh, that Turkey was behind the sarin gas attack that took place last year in Syria never found much voice in the American mainstream media.

In fact, the US administration even went so far as to openly reject the allegation. The fact, however, that such an allegation was rejected by the administration does not mean that it is not a threat to both the Obama administration and to Turkey.

In fact, Hersh has been known throughout his career to have made many interesting allegations, quite of few of which were refuted at first but then later turned out to be true. One thing is certain: Over time, Hersh has become a trusted name for many deep sources within the state that wish to see certain truths illuminated.

Weak Demand Hits Turkey's Second-Quarter GDP

by Yeliz Candemir - Turkey's economy grew less than expected in the second quarter because of weak domestic demand.

The news, announced by the Turkish Statistical Institute on Wednesday, suggests the government may miss its 4% economic growth target this year. The currency and stocks fell on the news while bond yields rose.

Gross domestic product rose by an annualized 2.1% in the second quarter, according to the institute, below the 2.5% rise forecast by economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. That reflects a setback from a 4.7% growth rate, revised up from 4.3%, in the first quarter. The statistics agency revised Turkey's 2013 economic growth to 4.1% from 4%.

Turks mobilize to join solidarity campaign for Bank Asya

The government-led assault to sink Turkey's largest Islamic lender, Bank Asya, due to its affiliations with the Hizmet movement, has stirred a public movement, with thousands of people rushing to deposit money with the bank to aid its struggle for survival.

Mobilized by waves of social media messages, such as those under the Twitter hashtag #MilletBankAsyayaSahipÇıkıyor (NationProtectsBankAsya), people are flocking to the bank's branches to deposit their money. Some have sold their jewelry, some have sold their cars, and some have even drawn loans from other banks to deposit them with Bank Asya so that the bank is not short of money, amid an unprecedented government attempt to collapse a private bank out of animosity towards a civil society organization.

Yet another 'coup attempt' in Turkey

by Mustafa Akyol - On Sept. 9, an Istanbul court approved an indictment requesting “aggravated life imprisonment” for 35 soccer fans who support Besiktas, Turkey’s oldest soccer team, and who call themselves the Carsi group (the Bazaar group, in English). Their alleged crime does not, however, involve sports, but the Gezi Park protests they joined in July 2013. Prosecutors argued that the protests were not an ordinary affair, but a “coup attempt” a Article 312: “Any person who attempts to dissolve [the] Government of [the] Turkish Republic, or [takes advantage of the government while it is under threat] is punished with … life imprisonment.”

s criminalized by the Turkish Penal Code in

Turkey risks setting dangerous precedent, Bank Asya CEO says

By Emre Peker - ISTANBUL--Turkish authorities haven’t responded to pleas by Bank Asya that they act to prevent what the bank has called unfair attacks on it, Chief Executive Officer Ahmet Beyaz said. The lack of action risks setting a dangerous precedent about the independence of regulatory agencies, he said.

In his first interview since Thursday, when a spokesman for Turkey’s Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency said that the bank had been put under review under a law that gives the regulator broad powers over the lender, Mr. Beyaz accused BRSA officials of improperly revealing that the bank was under review under Article 70 of the nation’s banking law, and damaging its brand.

Is Islam more violent than any other faith?

After the brutal atrocities of the "Islamic State" (IS), formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham), Don Lemon, CNN's well-known anchorman, assembled a discussion last week addressing the question “Is Islam more violent than any other faith?”

New indictment accuses Gezi protestors of coup attempt

 

A new indictment arising from the anti-government protests of last summer -- commonly known as the Gezi Park protests -- accuses 35 protestors, including leaders of a football fan club, of working to overthrow the government.

The indictment seeks aggravated life sentences for the protestors.  It also accuses the protestors of “being members of an armed group,” “resisting public officials,” “staging demonstrations in violation of the law” and “possessing unlicensed weapons.”

Erdoğan verbally attacks top state figures for critical comments

Photo Credit: Today's Zaman

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has targeted the Chief of General Staff, Gen. Necdet Özel, President of the Constitutional Court Haşim Kılıç and the head of the Supreme Court of Appeals, Ali Alkan, criticizing them for their comments expressing concerns about the government's recent policies on domestic issues, a media report has said.

According to the Hürriyet daily, on Thursday, while en route to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit being held on Sept. 4 and 5, Erdoğan responded to questions from several journalists who had been invited to accompany him during his flight, excoriating the three figures for their critical attitudes.
Erdoğan reportedly first targeted Özel, who previously said that the military was not given any solid evidence regarding allegations that the military has been infiltrated by the “parallel state,” a term President Erdoğan uses to refer to alleged members of the faith-based Hizmet movement within the state bureaucracy who he believes aim to topple him, saying: "If there are anonymous letters concerning the acts of the 'parallel structure' then first examine them. If you find any solid evidence on the matter, then you may launch a legal procedure. If you cannot find anything, then you throw it away.”

Turkey's blind spot: al-Qaeda and ISIS

by EMRE USLU - Pro-government figures have been traveling around the world to convince the international community that Turkey did not help the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) or al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria and Iraq.

In September Etyen Mahçupyan, a columnist for the pro-government Akşam daily, Mesut Yeğen a professor at the government-affiliated Sehir University, and Gönul Tol, the founding director of the Center for Turkish Studies at the Middle East Institute (MEI), which is funded by pro-government circles, will talk at the Wilson Center on the following issues.

It was announced that the three will discuss the Kurdish question, domestic political developments and Turkey's foreign policy and its critical role in transforming regional conflicts.

When it comes to discussing Turkey's critical role in these conflicts, I am sure many Americans would want to know whether Turkey helped al-Qaeda-affiliated terror organizations.

A typical answer that pro-government circles give to this question is that Turkey has never helped al-Qaeda-affiliated organizations during the war in Syria.

Does new Turkey fit in new NATO?

 

By Joost Lagendijk - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi have involuntarily thrown a lifeline to NATO.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Western defense organization has been struggling with its raison d'être. Whether or not one agrees with the alleged scale of the Soviet threat during the Cold War, it was clear to everybody that NATO was there to protect the territorial integrity of its member states. Because in the last two decades nobody expected the Russians to attack any of its western neighbors, NATO was forced to reform the armed forces under its command and focus increasingly on sending troops to other parts of the world where NATO presumably had an interest in restoring or keeping the peace (Balkans, Afghanistan).

These days, NATO is having one of its regular summits in Wales. Until a few months ago, there was a lot of speculation and discussion in security circles about new, effective ways to prevent the alliance from sinking into oblivion, at least in public perception. Russia's annexation of Crimea and its aggressive policies in eastern Ukraine plus the daily horror-show by the IS in Iraq and Syria have, however, drastically changed NATO's agenda.