Turkey’s regime is trying to hide any evidence that holds Turkish leaders responsible for the support of terrorist groups, especially the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Turkish media is reporting.
Turkey officially denies all accusations that it supports activities of terrorists and allows them to pass through its territory to fight the Syrian regime. Ankara has repeatedly called for the ouster of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
The Arab news website Al-Watan Al-Arabi (Arabic link) quoted Turkish media sources as saying that West’s intention to investigate the relationship between the Turkish regime and the Islamic state organization raised Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s fears. This fear caused him to have Hakan Fidan, the head of Turkey’s intelligence service and Erdogan’s right-hand man, get rid of any evidence that could be used against him in international courts.
Erdogan reportedly instructed the intelligence agencies to hide all evidence and documents that show the involvement of the Turkish government in supporting ISIS, out of fear of being charged in international courts for supporting a terror organization.
Experts believe that Turkey turns a blind eye to militants who are going to Syria to join extremist groups via Turkish border crossings. They stress that Turkey, despite being a NATO member and having broad logistical and regulatory powers, facilitates this traffic out of hope that it will increase the possibility of the fall of Assad’s regime.
For example, some pro-Kurdish media outlets reported recently that a car bomb driven by a suicide bomber came from the Turkish border and exploded at the Syrian border crossing near Kobane, which raised questions about Turkey’s commitment to fighting ISIS. Additionally, many young men who went to fight in Syria and Iraq and then returned to their homes acknowledged that they had walked through Turkish border crossing and cooperated with “mediators” to cross into “the land of jihad.”
In addition, international officials accused the Turkish state of not doing enough to stop the fighting in Kobane, located just on the Syrian side of the border, where local Kurdish forces are battling ISIS. Analysts also say that the escape of Turks from extremist forces raises the level of concerns about coordination between the Erdogan regime and the militant jihadist groups.
[Photo: Government of Chile / Wikimedia Commons CC-3.0]