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.
However, intelligence communities around the world have been well aware of the fact that the Turkish intelligence agency was in close contact with those organizations and that many weapons were transferred to those organizations. International media provided tons of evidence about it…
However, regular audiences who do not monitor Turkey closely may not be aware of this fact. Thus, the Turkish government has launched a campaign to convince those groups that Turkey has not supported such groups.
In order for those outsiders to understand whether the Turkish intelligence agency has supported al-Qaeda-affiliated groups, there is one critical question to ask. Since 2012, al-Qaeda-affiliated groups have been using Turkey as a bridge to cross into Syria. The numbers vary from source to source. The average estimate of how many militants used Turkish soil to cross into Syria is close to 5,000. In addition, thousands of Turkish citizens have joined al-Qaeda-affiliated groups to fight inside Syria.
For a foreigner it is not easy to travel through Turkey to Syria. It takes a well-organized terror network to pick up the foreign “jihadists” from airports to cross into Syria. Transferring thousands of “jihadists” from Turkey to Syria would take thousands of hours of driving time between İstanbul and Hatay/Antep, thousands of hours of phone conversations, thousands of email exchanges, Facebook messages, Twitter messages and so on.
While Turkey has become the center of such criminal activities and terror networks actively transferring “jihadists” from Turkey to Syria, one wonders whether Turkish law enforcement agencies detected these activities and arrested a single member of this criminal network.
When Turkey is questioned why it is allowing these jihadists to cross into Syria, the authorities have a fixed answer: Turkey has an almost 1,000-kilometer border with Syria, so it is impossible to control the border.
It seems this argument is logical. However, when it comes to the fact that Turkey has not arrested a single member of the terror network that was established to transfer those “jihadists” from Turkey to Syria, one wonders why Turkish law enforcement agencies have failed to do so.
Is it because of a deliberate government preference to turn a blind eye to the transfer of these terrorists, or is it just the failure of Turkish law enforcement agencies altogether?
Turkish law enforcement agencies are famous for monitoring all types of illegal activities inside Turkey. They are criticized for establishing an Orwellian monitoring system targeting Turkish citizens. They don't even hesitate to monitor Twitter messages by the opposition and punish them when they criticize the government. Why in the world would those same law enforcement agencies turn completely blind when it comes to monitoring the terror activities of al-Qaeda-affiliated organizations inside Turkey?
Published on Today's Zaman
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.
However, intelligence communities around the world have been well aware of the fact that the Turkish intelligence agency was in close contact with those organizations and that many weapons were transferred to those organizations. International media provided tons of evidence about it…
However, regular audiences who do not monitor Turkey closely may not be aware of this fact. Thus, the Turkish government has launched a campaign to convince those groups that Turkey has not supported such groups.
In order for those outsiders to understand whether the Turkish intelligence agency has supported al-Qaeda-affiliated groups, there is one critical question to ask. Since 2012, al-Qaeda-affiliated groups have been using Turkey as a bridge to cross into Syria. The numbers vary from source to source. The average estimate of how many militants used Turkish soil to cross into Syria is close to 5,000. In addition, thousands of Turkish citizens have joined al-Qaeda-affiliated groups to fight inside Syria.
For a foreigner it is not easy to travel through Turkey to Syria. It takes a well-organized terror network to pick up the foreign “jihadists” from airports to cross into Syria. Transferring thousands of “jihadists” from Turkey to Syria would take thousands of hours of driving time between İstanbul and Hatay/Antep, thousands of hours of phone conversations, thousands of email exchanges, Facebook messages, Twitter messages and so on.
While Turkey has become the center of such criminal activities and terror networks actively transferring “jihadists” from Turkey to Syria, one wonders whether Turkish law enforcement agencies detected these activities and arrested a single member of this criminal network.
When Turkey is questioned why it is allowing these jihadists to cross into Syria, the authorities have a fixed answer: Turkey has an almost 1,000-kilometer border with Syria, so it is impossible to control the border.
It seems this argument is logical. However, when it comes to the fact that Turkey has not arrested a single member of the terror network that was established to transfer those “jihadists” from Turkey to Syria, one wonders why Turkish law enforcement agencies have failed to do so.
Is it because of a deliberate government preference to turn a blind eye to the transfer of these terrorists, or is it just the failure of Turkish law enforcement agencies altogether?
Turkish law enforcement agencies are famous for monitoring all types of illegal activities inside Turkey. They are criticized for establishing an Orwellian monitoring system targeting Turkish citizens. They don't even hesitate to monitor Twitter messages by the opposition and punish them when they criticize the government. Why in the world would those same law enforcement agencies turn completely blind when it comes to monitoring the terror activities of al-Qaeda-affiliated organizations inside Turkey?
Published on Today's Zaman
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