View attachment 957636
Turkish support to anti-Government forces in Syria
Al-Nusra Front and the Army of Conquest
Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have supported the
Army of Conquest.
[117] The coalition includes the
al-Nusra Front (the Syrian affiliate of
al-Qaeda) and
Ahrar al-Sham, but it also included non-al-Qaeda-linked Islamist factions, such as the
Sham Legion, that have received covert arms support from the United States.
[118] According to
The Independent, some Turkish officials said they were giving logistical and intelligence support to the command center of the coalition, but said they did not give direct help to al-Nusra, while acknowledging that the group would be beneficiaries. It was also reported that some rebels and officials say that material support in the form of money and weapons to the Islamist groups was being given by Saudis with Turkey facilitating its passage.
[119] Al-Ahram reported that President Obama of the United States chose not to confront Saudi Arabia and Qatar over the issue at a May 2015 meeting of the
Gulf Cooperation Council, although al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham troops made up 90% of the troops in the
Idlib region, where they were making substantial gains against the Assad government.
[120]
Turkey had reportedly criticised designation of the Nusra Front as a terrorist organisation.
Feridun Sinirlioğlu had reportedly told his American interlocutors that it was more important to focus on the "chaos" that Assad has created instead of groups such as al-Nusra.
[121] Al-Monitor claimed in 2013 that Turkey was reconsidering its support for Nusra. Turkey's designation of the Nusra Front as a terrorist group since June 2014 was seen as an indication of it giving up on the group.
[122][123] Turkish opposition parties have accused Erdogan and his government have supported terrorism in Syria.
[124][125] In June 2014, İhsan Özkes, a parliamentarian from
CHP, stated that a directive had been signed by
Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Güler, ordering the provision of support to Al-Nusra against
PYD. Güler said this statement false and said that a directive with the letterhead of the Governor's Office of Hatay could not be possibly signed by a minister, which is a direct proof of the document's inauthenticity.
[126][127] Former
United States Ambassador to Turkey,
Francis Ricciardone stated that Turkey had directly supported and worked with
Ahrar al-Sham and al-Qaeda's wing in Syria for a period of time thinking that they could work with extremist Islamist groups and push them to become more moderate at the same time, an attempt which failed. He said that he tried to persuade the Turkish government to close its borders to the groups, but to no avail.
[128] Seymour Hersh in an article published on
London Review of Books on 17 April 2014 said that senior US military leaders and the intelligence community were concerned about Turkey's role and stated that Erdogan was a supporter of al-Nusra Front and other Islamist rebel groups.
[129]
On 9 January 2017, Turkey summoned the Russian and Iranian ambassadors to express its disturbance over airstrikes of the Syrian Army in the Idlib Governorate.
[130]On 5 May 2017,
Mehmet Görmez, the
Turkish president of religious affairs, met with
Harith al-Dhari,
[131] an Iraqi Sunni cleric who was designated by the
Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee as an "individual associated with al-Qaeda" in 2010. Al-Dhari was reported to have "provided operational guidance, financial support, and other services to or in support of
al-Qaeda in Iraq."
[132]
Turkistan Islamic Party
Arab media stated that the village of
Az-Zanbaqi in
Jisr al-Shughur's countryside has become a base for a massive amount of
Uyghur Turkistan Islamic Party militants and their families in Syria, estimated at 3,500. They further stated the Turkish intelligence was being involved in transporting these Uyghurs via Turkey to Syria, with the aim of using them first in Syria to help
Jabhat Al-Nusra and gain combat experience fighting against the Syrian Army before sending them back to
Xinjiang to fight against
China if they manage to survive.
[133][134] Arab news agencies reported that the Uyghurs in the Turkistan Islamic Party, the Chechens in
Junud al-Sham, Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham are being coordinated by Turkish intelligence to work with the
Army of Conquest.
[135] Turkish media agencies, on the other hand, denied this and stated that it was a scheme of the Chinese government to promise a holy cause and new lands to Uyghur forces with Islamic tendencies, which would eventually be cited by the government as the reason for more oppressive policies towards the Uyghur people.
[136] The validity of the Chinese statements had also been challenged by Sean Roberts of Georgetown University in an article on global terrorism.
[137] Conversely, other reports emphasized on the Uyghur fighters' ties with ISIL, which led to the
2017 Istanbul nightclub shooting against Turkey.
[138]
Allegations of Turkish cooperation with and support for ISIL
Ever since the formal founding of ISIL from its
Islamist predecessor groups in June 2014, Turkey has faced numerous allegations of collaboration with and support for ISIL in international media.
[139][140][141][142] Several of the allegations have focused on Turkish businessman and politician
Berat Albayrak, who has faced calls for his prosecution in the United States.
[143][144]
Turkey has, despite national and international criticism, largely refused to directly engage militants of the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), despite continued threats from ISIL to pursue more operations on Turkish soil. The Turkish response to the ISIL-led
Siege of Kobanî as well as a series of terrorist attacks on Turkish soil reportedly linked to ISIL perpetrators, was largely subdued apart from a series of incidents on the
Turkish–Syrian border. On 23 July 2014 one Turkish sergeant was killed by fire from
ISIL forces in Syria, and four Turkish tanks returned fire into ISIL held territory in Syria.
[145] The following day ISIL and Turkish soldiers actively engaged in the Turkish border town of
Kilis, marking a dangerous new escalation in the ties between Turkey and ISIL.
[146] Turkish
F-16 Fighting Falcons struck ISIL targets across the border from
Kilis Province with
smart bombs, the Turkish government announced.
[147]
The Turkish government stated that this was to prevent an attempted invasion by ISIL troops.
[148]
On 25 August 2015, the Turkish newspaper
Bugün ran a front-page story, illustrated with video stills, about what it said was the transfer, under the observation of Turkish border guards, of weapon and explosives from Turkey to ISIL through the Akcakale border post. Bugün reported that such transfers were occurring on a daily basis and had been going on for two months. In response, a couple of days later offices of Koza İpek Media Group, the owner of the newspaper, were raided by Turkish police.
[149][150] In October 2015 control of Koza İpek Media Group was seized by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office which then appointed new managers with links to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), and in July 2016 Bugün was
closed down on the orders of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
[151][152]
In late November 2015, Turkey started tougher controls to stop ISIL militants crossing on a 60-mile stretch of the border with Syria where ISIL had control of the Syrian side. The crossing was used for smuggling and for arms transfers. This followed Russian
President Putin directly said Turkey was aiding ISIL and al-Qaeda, and pressure from the U.S.
[153]
In April 2018, an article was published by
Foreign Policy in which it was stated that in 2013 alone, some 30,000 militants traversed Turkish soil, establishing the so-called jihadi highway, as the country became a conduit for fighters seeking to join the Islamic State. Furthermore, it was stated that wounded Islamic State militants were treated for free at hospitals across southeastern Turkey. Among those receiving the care was one of the top deputies of Islamic State chieftain Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Ahmet el-H, who was treated in a private hospital in Sanliurfa in August 2014.
[154]
