Hundreds of supporters of the radical terrorist organization Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) allegedly performed Eid prayers in Istanbul, for a second time, in which they criticized the Turkish government and made a call for war.

The Turkish media reported on Sunday that a group of ISIL militants — allegedly consisting of 1,000 ISIL members — gathered at a picnic site in İstanbul’s Ömerli neighborhood to perform the prayers signaling the end of the holy month of Ramadan and the beginning of the celebration of Eid al-Fitr.

According to the news agency Sputnik Türkiye, the prayer was led by Halis Bayancuk, also known as Abu Hanzala, who is alleged to be one of ISIL’s most high-ranking members in Turkey. He allegedly called on the supporters after the prayer to engage in war.

As part of his 14-minute speech, Bayancuk, who is said to be in charge of the al-Qaeda network in Turkey, criticized democracy and called for the formation of a state governed by religious law. Also criticizing the Turkish government, Bayancuk said the Gülen movement, inspired by the Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, was being unfair towards members of ISIL and al-Qaeda and was instigating arbitrary detainments through its alleged contacts in law enforcement and judicial circles. However Bayancuk gave no details on how a civil society organization could instigate detentions. The Gülen movement is also known as the Hizmet movement.

Bayancuk was detained in raids against al-Qaeda cells by the police and gendarmerie units in six provinces across Turkey on Jan. 14, 2014, but was let go after no indictment was prepared against him. It is unclear why the prosecutor’s office did not indict him, although several others have already been charged.

The government removed the police chiefs who undertook the operation from the investigation while reassigning the prosecutor who handled the case and the judge who authorized the raids.

It was stated back in 2014, when Bayancuk was detained, that wiretapped conversations had him telling other members of al-Qaeda that the conquest of Syria was almost over and that Turkey would be next. “We will conquer İstanbul, God willing,” he was heard saying.

ISIL forbids its followers to join prayers in mosques located in countries not under the group’s control. A similar gathering was also held last year. The İstanbul Governor’s Office made an announcement stating that the group had not obtained the necessary permission to perform their prayer on public property, after images of the prayer caused a public outcry.

ISIL is also known as a Salafi extremist militant group and self-proclaimed caliphate and Islamic state led by Sunni Arabs from Iraq and Syria. As of March of this year, the group is said to have exerted control over territory in Iraq and Syria occupied by nearly 10 million people.

Source: Zaman