Turkey Archives

Saudi, Turkey, Qatar behind dangerous escalation: Syria

May 24, 2016 By administrator

Syria has written to to the United Nations, blaming Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar for Monday terrorist bombings which killed at leas 154 people in the coastal cities of in Tartous and Jableh.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry sent a letter to the United Nations, saying the blasts are a “dangerous escalation by the hostile and extremist regimes in Riyadh, Ankara and Doha.”

The letter said the three countries seek to derail UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva and frustrate efforts to stop bloodshed in Syria as well as undermine “remarkable achievements” of the Syrian army against terrorists.

The ministry said the Security Council’s inaction in the face of “heinous crimes being perpetrated by foreign-sponsored terrorist groups across Syria has emboldened those regimes that support terrorism to deploy their terrorist pawns to Syria.”

The letter also criticized Britain, France and the US over their refusal to label Jaysh al-Islam and al-Qaeda-affiliated Ahrar al-Sham as terrorist groups, saying the approach speaks to their lack of seriousness in fighting terrorism.

Bombings and terrorist attacks, the letter said, will not dent Syria’s determination to combat terrorism.

It urged the UN Security Council to adopt immediate punitive measures against the states that sponsor terrorism and undermine international peace and security.

More than 300 people were also wounded in the Monday attacks in the Mediterranean coastal cities, some of them critically, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Lebanese Hezbollah movement condemned the deadly bombings in a statement, saying they called for a clear and resolute stance against regional and global powers supporting terrorism.

“These genocides, which are being carried out by Takfiri groups with backing and support by international secret services and with a cover by well-known Arab officials and countries, are the result of a dark ideology that aims to spread fear and chaos in our Arab and Muslim societies.”

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. Damascus says Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar are the main supporters of the militants fighting the government forces.

United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the Syrian crisis.

Turkey blackmails Bulgarian municipalities over the Armenian genocide

May 24, 2016 By administrator

Bulgarian municipalities By Georgi Gotev | EurActiv.com

Three Bulgarian municipalities will not receive EU funding under the cross-border cooperation programs between Bulgaria and Turkey. The reason is that Turkey bans partnerships with municipalities who recognise the Armenian genocide.

The Bulgarian municipalities of Burgas, Haskovo and Svilengrad stand no chance to receive EU money, because of obstructions by Turkey, a non-EU member state, the Bulgarian public TV channel bTV announced yesterday (14 March).

The ban comes from the Turkish foreign ministry, which prohibits working with municipalities who recognise the Armenian genocide of 1915, when hundreds of thousands of Christian Armenians died during forced removals by the Ottoman army from what is now Eastern Turkey.

As Bulgarian municipalities are unable to find a Turkish partner to implement joint projects, they are bound to lose several millions of euros. The most important projects concern the environment, for the prevention and mitigation of natural disasters.

For Bulgaria, the issue constitutes both a diplomatic and economic scandal. In the region of Haskovo, every winter, rivers destroy bridges and dams, and flood villages. Local government lacks the resources to do preventative work. That’s why it was counting on the EU-funded regional partnership with the Turkish municipality of Edirne to do the required work. But now the project is dead, because Turkey reneged on cooperating.

The Mayor of Edirne, Recep Gürkan, is quoted as saying that the decision of the Turkish foreign ministry is final:

“With Haskovo we worked very well, but we already have a ban from our Foreign Ministry. The reason is a decision of the Municipal Council of Haskovo from last year, who used the motif of the Armenian genocide to name a park in the city,” Gürkan said.

Declarations condemning the Armenian genocide, adopted by the municipal councils of Bourgas and Svilengrad, have put these municipalities on Turkey’s black list. The Bulgarian Environment Ministry was informed of the case.

Speaking to bTV, Gürkan advised the Bulgarian municipalities to vote again. If the municipal council of Haskovo rescind using the Armenian genocide as a motif for naming a park, cooperation can start again, he said. And he added that the Bulgarian municipality of Yambol had done precisely that.

“Nobody can interfere (with) how we will name a street or a park,” retorted the mayor of Haskovo Dobri Belivanov.

Before prohibiting Edirne to work with these communities on projects, Turkey formally ended diplomatic relations with their mayors. With Haskovo, for example, the twinning was frozen.

Brussels can’t do anything

Apparently the EU can only stop the financing, because trans-border projects require a partner in the neighbouring country. Therefore the risk that the Bulgarian municipalities would lose EU funding because of the political games played by Ankara is real, bTV reports.

Turkish-Bulgarian relations have deteriorated recently. Bulgaria has declared a Turkish diplomat working at the Consulate General in Burgas a persona non-grata. A government source said the Turkish diplomat carried out activities which breach the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

Bulgaria expels Turkish diplomat for conducting Islamist activity

Bulgaria has declared a Turkish diplomat working at the Consulate General in Burgas persona non-grata, the Bulgarian press reported yesterday (21 February).

Turkey names Erdogan like new PM as Erdogan tightens grip on the country

May 19, 2016 By administrator

Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim will become the new premier after he was appointed chairman of the ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) at a meeting in Ankara, on May 19, 2016 (AFP Photo/Adem Altan)

Istanbul (AFP) – Turkey’s ruling party named a loyal ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the new prime minister Thursday, with the incoming premier immediately vowing to “work in total harmony” with the strongman leader.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) will officially appoint Transport Minister Binali Yildirim as its chairman Sunday, meaning he will automatically become prime minister.

Yildirim will replace Ahmet Davutoglu, who stepped down after a struggle with Erdogan, as the president seeks to concentrate more power in the presidential office.

“We will work in total harmony with all our party comrades at all levels, beginning with our founding president and leader,” said Yildirim after being named party head, referring to Erdogan.

The 60-year-old Yildirim is seen as one of Erdogan’s closest longtime confidants and has served an almost unbroken stint from 2002 to 2013 as transport minister and then again from 2015.

They are both strongly opposed to resuming talks with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Kurdish militant group that has claimed responsibility for several attacks across Turkey since a two-year-long ceasefire collapsed in 2015.

The new prime minister’s main task, observers say, will be to pilot a change in the constitution to transform Turkey from a parliamentary to a presidential system, placing more power in Erdogan’s hands.

“And now it’s time for the presidential system,” Yildirim said earlier in May just after Davutoglu’s resignation.

Erdogan’s critics have accused him of authoritarian behaviour, pointing to the growing number of investigations pursued against journalists along with a bid to lift the parliamentary immunity of some deputies, a measure seen as targeting pro-Kurdish MPs and which will be put to a vote in parliament on Friday.

Another critical task facing the new prime minister will be to negotiate with the European Union on a crunch visa deal, a key plank of an accord aimed at easing the EU’s migrant crisis.

The visa deal has been in jeopardy over Ankara’s reluctance to alter its counter-terror laws, a requirement of the agreement, prompting Erdogan to make a series of critical statements about the EU in recent weeks.

Yildirim vowed Thursday to “rid Turkey of the calamity of terrorism” during a symbolic visit to the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir in the southeast.

“We will do what it takes to achieve it,” he said, pledging to return to the city with Erdogan on May 28.

The new prime minister is a relative newcomer to foreign politics and his first high profile outing will be the opening of the inaugural World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul Monday, attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Analysts expect that Yildirim — who has never stepped out of line with the president on a policy issue — will prove a far more pliable figure for the president than Davutoglu.

After the official appointment expected on Sunday, “the post of prime minister will have changed its meaning,” said Fuat Keyman, head of the Istanbul Policy Center think-tank.

“The president will become the head of the executive. The prime minister will become a functional cog,” Keyman told AFP.

– ‘Not one millimetre’ –

After the announcement of a single candidate, Yildirim will likely be approved as new AKP leader by an extraordinary congress of the party on Sunday.

According to AKP convention, the posts of party chief and head of government automatically go to the same figure.

Erdogan will then give the new AKP leader the mandate to serve as prime minister early next week, after which a new cabinet will be announced.

As a ferry company chief and then as transport minister, Yildirim has for the last two decades worked in the transport sector, an area in Turkey which is trying to catch up its lag in infrastructure with vast new projects.

Yildirim and Erdogan have been close allies since Erdogan was elected mayor of Istanbul in 1994.

According to the columnist for the Hurriyet daily Abdulkadir Selvi, the only serious difference between the two men is that Erdogan supports the Fenerbahce football side and Yildirim their arch Istanbul rivals Galatasaray.

Despite Davutoglu’s shock announcement earlier this month that he was stepping down, the AKP has been keen to promote an image of unity in public.

“There’s not one millimetre of difference between the AKP faithful and the president,” said party spokesman Omer Celik.

Davutoglu, who met Erdogan Thursday to discuss the transition, phoned his successor to congratulate him, according to the state-run Anatolia news agency.

However financial markets have not appreciated the political uncertainty, with the Turkish lira losing five percent in value against the US dollar over the last month.

Turkey: Massive bomb explosion kills 4 Turkish soldiers in southeast

May 18, 2016 By administrator

A massive bomb explosion has ripped through a military vehicle in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeastern region, killing at least four soldiers and injuring nine others, security sources say.

The military said on Wednesday that the bomb was detonated as the vehicle was traveling in the town of Semdinli in the Hakkari Province near the Iraqi border.

Explosives had been laid in the road in advance of the soldiers’ convoy.

The Turkish military has reportedly deployed troops backed by helicopters to the troubled region to launch an operation in the wake of the fatal attack.

Earlier on Wednesday, a Turkish soldier was killed when he came under militant fire in the mainly Kurdish town of Nusaybin, situated at the Syrian border. The volatile town has been under a round-the-clock curfew for more than two months as Turkish forces attempt to root out militants.

Turkish fighter jets also bombarded overnight areas in Hakkari Province and in northern Iraq, killing at least 10 people.

he Turkish military has launched a large-scale military campaign against PKK militants in its southern border region since last year. The government has imposed curfew in the areas that have been targeted in the army’s anti-PKK campaign.

The Turkish military has also been pounding the group’s positions in northern Iraq.

The operations began in the wake of a deadly July 2015 bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc. More than 30 people died in the attack, which the Turkish government blamed on the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

After the bombing, the PKK militants, who accuse the government in Ankara of supporting Daesh, engaged in a series of reprisal attacks against Turkish police and security forces, prompting the Turkish military operations.

A shaky ceasefire between Ankara and the PKK that had stood since 2013 was declared null and void by the militants following the Turkish strikes against the group.

The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region in southeastern Turkey since 1984. The conflict has left thousands of people dead.

France: Sarkozy (LR) of the EU: the worst would Brexit and the accession of Turkey

May 17, 2016 By administrator

arton126526-480x360 Paris, May 17, 2016 (AFP) – Nicolas Sarkozy said in an interview published Tuesday on the website of the World, that “the worst” for the European Union “would Brexit and the accession of Turkey,” and advocates a new treaty “which France must be initiated as early as summer 2017”.

“The worst would be the Brexit + + and the accession of Turkey would have made the grand slam of the error! But Brexit + + or not, it will, in all cases, deeply rebuild the European project, and it will pass by a treaty which France must be initiated by the summer of 2017, “said the former president of the Republic.

The issue of maintaining or not the United Kingdom within the bloc of 28 EU countries is subject to referendum June 23. “The debate on Brexit + + is an opportunity to rebuild Europe. I regret that Francois Hollande has not made any proposals upstream, “he told Mr Sarkozy, who also criticized the EU-Turkey agreement on refugees.

“To think that Turkey can sustainably manage and solve these problems is a mistake. Europe can she trust a Turkish power, which evolves more and more towards an authoritarian regime? I dispute it, “he said.

“It is not the fact of having + + hot spots in Turkey that I dispute in the agreement with that country, it is the abolition of visas, irresponsible in the current security climate, and the revival of negotiations membership, incomprehensible, given the evolution of the Turkish power over civil liberties, “insists the President of Republicans (LR).

“I will not criticize Merkel and German politics. But what shocked me is to see Merkel negotiating alone with the Turkish government. Where was Mr. Holland? Where is the voice of France? When Barack Obama came to Europe, he met the Chancellor in Germany, after stopping in the UK. Does France have disappeared from the diplomatic card? What a humiliation! “, Accused Mr. Sarkozy.

Tuesday, May 17, 2016,
Ara © armenews.com

Erdogan is a ‘Ruthless Tyrant Digging his Own Grave’ resemblance of his forefathers brutality

May 16, 2016 By administrator

1039448881 More and more western media sources now openly call Turkish President Erdogan a ruthless tyrant with a dangerous hobby of eradicating any form of opposition or freethinking; however, his strive for unilateral control over the country could end up entrapping him, given the recent challenges in the Middle East.

More and more western media sources now admit that Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s behavior “rings more and more alarm bells.”

In its recent analysis of the latest political developments in Turkey, the UK-based online newspaper Al-Arab calls him a “ruthless dictator with a dangerous hobby of eradication of any form of opposition and freethinking in the country”.

“Erdogan is harsh and cruel with everyone, without any exceptions; he gives no piece to anyone in his country, fearing threats even in his own home palace,” the newspaper says, referring to the recent changes in the country’s government and the resignation of Turkey’s former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

“To put it simply, Erdogan thirsts for absolute power in his country. That is why he is alarmed by any criticism by his opponents of the developments in the country. Besides, he suppresses any critical remarks which come, even from his inner circle,” it adds.

His 14 years of dominance in Turkey have taken Erdogan down a long road, and he has ended up a ruthless dictator, harshly dispersing protesters and demonstrators, blocking undesirable mass media sources, restricting various freedoms and bargaining over refugees to suit his personal interests, it states.

He is trying to build a system where absolute power is concentrated in the hands of a president-tyrant. The Turkish president, who is quite eager to join the EU, won’t stop until he wipes out every one of his opponents or critics even if it is Turkey’s former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

This view was echoed earlier by the UK Telegraph.

“Mr Erdogan is now trying to subdue every possible challenge to his rule. Troublesome journalists go straight to jail, where they are joined by ordinary Turks found guilty of “insulting” their leader, in breach of the notorious Article 299 of the Penal Code,” it wrote earlier in March.

“Now Mr Erdogan wants to complete this maneuver by rewriting the constitution to create an imperial presidency, tailor-made for his own ambitions. As for how long he aims to rule, he talks of being ‘ready for 2023’ – the centenary of the republic’s birth,” it added.

“So Turkey has an instinctively authoritarian leader who treats the constitution as a personal plaything and plans for decades of dominance. How can this not be dangerous?” it went on to question.

In a separate analysis on the developments in the country, the US-based online conservative political website Front Page Magazine also calls Turkey “an Islamist tyranny that is getting worse by the day.”

“Once Obama held it up as a model for the Middle East. Now even he doesn’t want to have anything to do with it. But Turkish tyrant Erdogan has the EU over a barrel. The migrant crisis lets him blackmail Europe, turning the migrant tap on or off,” it says.

“And he’s making it clear that Turkey’s march into Europe will have no fig leafs of human rights. None whatsoever,” it adds.

However several outlets suggest that Erdogan’s foreign and internal policy might backfire at the president himself.

“Turkey is transforming to an Asian-style development model of a strong leader where decisions are made by the president and a small, unelected group of consultants,” Tim Ash, an economist for Nomura, told the US-based website Al-Monitor, which specializes in analysis from and about the Middle East.

“The danger is the weakening of the control-balance mechanism and quality of state governance.” Ash added, “The result will be weaker policies. Misguided policy choices could damage the long-term growth perspective.”

The website notes that because of increasing pressures on the central bank and political storms, Turkey’s annual growth rate has already slowed.

“The 2013 Gezi protests and corruption charges against the government, the 2014 presidential election and two general elections in 2015 have already put the Turkish economy under stress. Turkey’s annual growth rate, which for 50 years had averaged 4.5%, remained at an average 3% in the past four years,” it recalls.

Economists are warning that delays in structural reforms and Erdogan’s economic views could push the growth rate even lower, triggering a crisis similar to that of 2001.

Kamil Yilmaz, a professor of economics at Koc University, described the situation in the country as a “slow death.”

“Politicians, to avoid a ‘slow death,’ may opt for populist policies, such as lowering interest rates. True, this may support growth a bit in the short term, but in the medium and long terms, you will pay the price. A shock from abroad or in Turkey could push the Turkish economy toward a crisis similar to that of 2001,” he forecasts.

Al-Alrab calls the model of Erdogan’s policies “Islamic modernism”, noting that it has become the subject of profound questions whether it is able to withstand the storms and new challenges the region is currently facing.

Source: sputniknews.com

Terrorist State of Turkey silenced 900 journos since January: Journalists’ association

May 15, 2016 By administrator

Turkish journalists hold banners and shout slogans during a demonstration in support of jailed journalists Can Dundar and Erdem Gul on January 10, 2016, in Ankara. (AFP)

The Turkish government has dismissed hundreds of journalists so far this year and blocked tens of thousands of websites since mid-2015, says an association for journalists in Turkey.

According to the report by the Press for Freedom Project (ÖiB), which is affiliated with the Turkish Journalists’ Association (TGC), at least 160 journalists were sacked in April alone, raising the number of dismissed journalists in the Anatolian country to a total of 894 since January.

The report also set the number of blocked websites at 104,904 since the Turkish general election in June 2015.

Moreover, a total of 33 reporters were arrested from January to April, it further said, adding that 12 journalists faced charges over “insulting” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pictured below).

The report also highlighted the case of Can Dundar, the editor-in-chief of center-left Turkish daily Cumhuriyet, who was given five years and 10 months of jail terms on May 6, while the paper’s Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul, was given a five-year prison sentence, both over charges “leaking state secrets.”

“Journalists chase news. Treating journalists and newspaper managers, who search for, write and publish news, as ‘terrorists’ or ‘spies’ displays the state of freedoms in the country in question,” the report said.

Freedom is a “must” for the press and the citizens’ involvement in politics is possible only through a free media, said chair of the TGC, Nazmi Bilgin, during a Saturday press conference, in which the findings of the report were announced with emphasis on the importance of press freedom to enable a modern, democratic society.

Turkey has been under fire for clamping down on journalists since Erdogan came to power in 2014, after serving as a premier over a decade.

With dozens of journalists already put behind bars, activists say Erdogan has filed hundreds of other court cases against critics, including many journalists, for insulting him since he became president.

In 2015, nearly 800 Turkish journalists were sacked, 156 others were detained, and court cases were opened against 238 members of the press, according to the Republican People’s Party deputy head, Sezgin Tanrıkulu.

Athens reacts to Western Thrace ‘identity’ conference in Turkey

May 15, 2016 By administrator

The Greek Foreign Ministry has slammed a conference held in Turkey titled “The Turkish identity of Muslims in Western Thrace” as stoking tension and uncertainty among Greek Muslims.

Greece does not recognize its Muslim population, located predominantly in Western Thrace, as an ethnically Turkish minority but as a religious one.

“Greece follows a policy of equality that pertains to all Greek citizens, regardless of religious identity, and secures the prosperity and dignity and rights of all,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Efstratios Efthymiou on Saturday.

According to reports, Turkish media carried stories identifying Greece’s Muslim minority as ethnic Turks stranded in “Europe’s poorest region.”

Turkey: Erdogan Dreaming to ‘Revive New Ottoman Caliphate’… in Europe

May 14, 2016 By administrator

By Deena Stryker,

Angela Merkel cannot transform Turkish President Erdogan from an ‘Oriental despot’ into a respectable member of the European family, Deena Stryker writes, warning that Europe may fall into the neo-Ottoman trap.

All German Chancellor Angela Merkel got for enlisting Turkish President Erdogan’s help in coping with the European refugee crisis is a dramatic drop in poll numbers, renowned international expert, author and journalist Deena Stryker writes in her article for New Eastern Outlook entitled “Was a United Europe a Mirage?”.

“That glazed look that regularly comes upon the face of Recip Tayep Erdogan should have warned her that he has a severe case of Ottomanossis,” Stryker remarks.

Furthermore, having sacked Davutoglu the Turkish president claimed that he is not ready to meet all the EU’s demands, covering in particular a loosening of Ankara’s controversial anti-terror law, in exchange for implementing visa-free travel for the Turks.

“Make no mistake, Erdogan will not blink if the West resorts to pressure tactics. He will never agree to certain key ‘preconditions’ of the EU deal that Davutoglu negotiated whereby Turkey is required to change its anti-terror legislation in line with the European acquis and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights,” Ambassador M. K. Bhadrakumar wrote in his article for the Indian Punchline blog, commenting on the matter.

Indeed, over the past several months Erdogan has expressed disdain to all European norms and values.

“During the past several months, he [Erdogan] has defied Western norms of behavior toward journalists, killing and jailing them right and left, accusing them of supporting Turkey’s Kurdish minority,” Stryker points out.

“History is a powerful motivator, and when the Turkish President, who until recently had been begging to be admitted into the European Union, flouts its basic rules of behavior, it’s clear that he sees himself completing the Ottoman domination of Europe,” she stresses.

Journalist and geopolitical analyst Martin Berger echoes Stryker, asking whether there is “any backbone left in the EU” in the face of Erdogan’s sheer blackmail in his analysis for New Eastern Outlook.

He cites President of the European Council Donald Tusk who published an opinion article in late April 2016 urging the EU nations to adopt new migration policies.

“No one else is going to protect our borders for us. We cannot hand over the keys to our territory, to our security, to any third country. This applies to Turkey as well as to north African countries. Our helplessness would tempt others to blackmail Europe,” Tusk stressed in his Op-Ed published in seven European newspapers including the Guardian.

“Too often I have heard from our neighbors that Europe should give in, otherwise it will be flooded by migrants,” the President of the European Council remarked in obvious reference to repeated threats voiced by Ankara.

“Recent experience with Turkey shows that Europe must set clear limits to its concessions. We can negotiate money but never our values. We cannot impose our standards on the rest of the world. Equally, others cannot impose their standards on us. Our freedoms, including freedom of expression, will not be part of political bargaining with any partner. The Turkish president must heed this message,” Tusk emphasized.

Stryker notes that while the world is busy with countering the Daesh threat, Ankara is quietly realizing its own geostrategic goals in Europe. The EU should avoid falling into the neo-Ottoman threat.

“Europe is experiencing a combination soft/hard takeover: by the refugees on one hand, and a neighboring ruler [Erdogan] nurtured by the US, but no longer ready to play the role of subordinate either to Europe or NATO. While ISIS [Daesh] — even with not so covert Turkish help — can eventually be brought to heel, Erdogan’s plan is already partly realized, thanks to Europeans themselves,” the renowned journalist underscores.

Source: sputniknews.com

Turkey: Leaked wiretaps of ISIS agents show Ankara routinely ignores terrorist cross-border activity

May 14, 2016 By administrator

Turkish oposition Thousands of ISIS associates have been routinely crossing into Syria aided by contacts in Turkey, phone calls tapped by Ankara security forces and handed to the media by opposition MP Erem Erdem reveal. He accuses the government of a massive cover-up.

Transcribed phone recordings belonging to Ilhami Bali, well known in Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) ranks and suspected of staging high-profile bomb attacks in Ankara and the mainly-Kurdish border city of Suruc, detail the lack of control along the Syrian Turkish border. The 98-kilometer (61-mile) stretch of border has only two crossings, the Jarablus and Al Rai entry points across from Turkey’s Gaziantep and Kilis.

Pressured by the international community to impose stricter border controls to stem the flood of militants into Syria, Ankara has been erecting walls at key crossing points, but to no avail as surveillance data from the Municipality of Ankara Provincial Security Department revealed.

The transcripts of the recordings have been passed on to the media by Turkish opposition politician, Eren Erdem of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), who is facing a witch-hunt from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government over his repeated allegations of massive cover-up of IS activity on Turkish soil.

While daily logs by the Turkish Armed Forces reveal that Turkish security forces apprehended 961 IS members from 57 countries in 2015, the alleged reality exposed by the Erdem leak, shows that thousands of IS fighters and their family members cross the Turkish border from Syria on a daily basis. But even those who get arrested on the Turkish side are often released at the crossing points.

For instance several documents suggest that IS coordinators helped some 1,400 people cross the Turkish border from September 22 – October 17. In one of the phone conversations, Ilhami Bali asked his interlocutor named Erkek, who according to the conversations helps smuggle people, the exact number of persons he has helped cross the border.

As the men argue about the actual number of all those who entered and left Turkey, the conversation reveals that the actual count of people passing through to the Turkish side is actually more than IS coordinators have presumed.

Another conversations between the two subjects revealed Bali was extremely dissatisfied with Erkek’s performance as he failed to help IS operatives cross the border.

“Did you get our people through?” Bali asked Erkek, who replied that he was not the one guiding the group in question.

“What? Are you the one who is responsible that they got arrested? Don’t lie to me! Don’t lie to me. Eighteen people crossed the border last night. Fifteen of them got arrested when you tried to help them,” Bali said.

“Listen to me, I have warned you,” added Bali, losing his temper. “If I ever hear that you try to pass our guys through, I will come in your house and shoot you to your head. I will shoot your head while you’re in bed.”

However, as other conversations have shown, IS operatives and contacts on the Turkish side of the border help those IS affiliates detained by Turkish security forces to evade justice.

“One brother, two sisters and one child were arrested while they tried to cross [at Kilis]. How could this happen? I do not understand,” wondered Erkek in another phone call.

“We have called and gave them the information,” Bali replied. “We talked to the brother who will look after the people who were arrested. Inshallah will look after them.”

More conversations between the two subjects further confirm that those who get arrested are later released through IS connections at police stations.

“The guy from the Gendarmerie called me and said that they were in the smuggler car,” Bali told Erkek in a conversations about another group detained at the border. “Call this guy. The people who got arrested today are at the Gandermarie station. Maybe he can do something… Gendarmerie took them under arrest. If they can let them free they should do that.”

Bali’s conversation with another IS operative, Mustafa Demir, offers apparent proof that the IS terror group is smuggling its fighters into Turkey for medical treatment.

“You know this Abu Abdella Garip who gets out the wounded people? Now Ali Mantara will come. He will bring a brother. He will call you when he arrives… Take the numbers and send them to the administration [of the crossing]. So the administration will look after them,” Mustafa Demir tells Bali.

“Where should I bring Abdullah Garip who helps cross the wounded ones? Should I take him to madrasa?” Bali asked.

“Send them to madrasa and call Ebu Abdallah and tell him that five persons are with Garip Geli… tell him that he should write down their names… So we can control how many left from here,” Demir replies.

In another conversation Erkek asks Bali what should “one wounded person” do when he comes to Turkey.

“I don’t really know. It has nothing to do with us,” Bali replied. “Tell them they should go to the border to the administration there.”