Swedish report: Turkey trained IS, al-Qaeda, granted them blast wires

NEWS DESK

According to the report, which was published by Sky News Arabia, after the outbreak of Syrian protests in 2011, Turkish MIT formed a special office with one goal: to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and to replace the regime with another hardliner ordered by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Nordic Monitor quoted an unnamed source as saying the first action by Turkish intelligence was to summon former police, army and special operations officers who had legal problems in the past and assigned them to a task they called "patriotic" to train, arm and organize militant groups, including at times al-Qaeda and IS.

The release of criminals in Turkish prisons to serve Erdogan

According to the source, a figure who worked for years in the Turkish security foundation, the Turkish intelligence has helped "convicted criminals" and suspects and those facing criminal charges for their release, adding: "Scores of ex-servicemen have been released through an organized campaign. The institution undermined the rule of law in Turkey, and the terrorists were unleashed on the ground in Syria.

Among the military figures released was Nuri Gokhan Bouzkir, he was major in the Special Operations Branch, who was sentenced to six years in prison in 2017 for a blackmail case known locally as the "Sauna Gang." Not only was he sentenced for stealing secret documents from a military base, but also was tried before a civil court under criminal charge, but was declared innocent in November 2016, following Erdogan's intervention in the case, and Bouzkir's reward for his inclusion in the intelligence agency.

ISIS got the wires from Turkey

One of the most interesting issues that the source mentioned is the shipment of detonation wires that were transferred to IS organization under the supervision of the Turkish intelligence service.

The case was revealed when police seized more than six tons of blast wires after intercepting a truck in Akcakli area in Şanlıurfa southern Turkey, on September 8, 2015.

A list of charges was filed against nine people, including truck driver Yalshin Kaya, who told the court that those responsible for the shipment had informed him that the Turkish state had agreed to them and he would not fear anything at all.

They told the driver that the shipment was destined to IS with government approval

At the driver's hearing, Kaya pointed out that a person who introduced himself as an intelligence officer had told him during the loading process that it was destined for IS with the consent of the Turkish government, which made the court include in the list of charges: on October 26, 2017, the driver was aware of the destination of the shipment organized by Ahmed Ezzat Saritash, one of the suspects in the case.

The cargo document showed that the blast wires belonged to Trend Limited, owned by Masoud Doganay, a retired police officer who worked in the weapons and explosives unit at the Denizli police station in the west of the country. He bought the firm in 2014 and registered it on behalf of his wife.

During a police investigation of the company's warehouses, they discovered that up to 20 tons of explosive materials were missing compared to the company's records of incoming and outgoing shipments.

After his arrest, the Public Prosecutor requested the court on 21 November 2017 to release Doganay, but the judge ordered his continued detention in Antalya.

It is the intelligence that bought the explosive materials

In a hearing held on July 17, 2017, Doganay revealed that he had sold explosive materials to two persons showing identification cards proving their work with the Turkish intelligence and that they had told him that they had completed the process on behalf of the government to support Turkmen in Syria.

Policy to silence of mouths

In October 2016, the prosecutor of Istanbul, Murad Inam, sued the correspondent of the newspaper "Cumhuriyet" Kanan Kushkun for publishing a report on the connection of the Turkish intelligence to the charge of the detonation wires, accusing it of insulting the Turkish state and its apparatus under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code.

To sow fear among journalists and deter them from thinking about writing any report on the issue, intelligence published an article in the pro-Erdogan daily Akit claiming that the shipment was on its way to the PKK in Syria.

The intelligence later tried to link the file with the cleric Fathullah Gulen, thus Erdogan "hit two birds with one stone", that is to remove the charge from the apparatus of the state, and attributing it to the president’s oponents.

(T/S)

ANHA