A screenshot taken from whistleblower fuatavni’s Twitter account. (Photo: Today’s Zaman)
The suicide attack in the southeastern town of Suruç on July 20 and the shooting of a soldier in the southern province of Kilis on Thursday, both of which were supposedly carried out by militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), were in fact plots designed by Turkish officials, a government whistleblower has said. Report by ZAMAN
Fuat Avni, a Twitter figure who regularly reveals inside information on allegedly secret meetings of high-ranking government officials, claimed on his account on Sunday evening that a secret meeting was held by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the presidential palace on Thursday.
Avni claims National Intelligence Organization (MİT) head Hakan Fidan, Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu and former Interior Minister Efkan Ala were present at the meeting.
The whistleblower said word had broken out a short while before the meeting began that a soldier had been killed in Kilis.
“What coincidence that those who said they’d send four people to Syria and fire eight rockets at Turkey to start a war were also at the meeting,” Fuat Avni said, referring to Fidan, adding, “Instead of eight rockets there were 10 ISIL militants.”
In March 2014, a conversation in which the voices of then-Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Sinirlioğlu, Fidan and Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Güler are heard discussing whether Turkey should conduct a military incursion into Syria was leaked online.
In the audio tape Fidan is allegedly heard saying: “If needed, I will dispatch four men to Syria. [Then] I will have them fire eight mortar shells at the Turkish side and create an excuse for war. We can also have them attack the tomb of Süleyman Şah as well.”
Fuat Avni claims Erdoğan and his advisors decided to conduct air strikes against ISIL targets without even informing acting Prime Minister Davutoğlu. According to Fuat Avni, the army is playing into Erdoğan’s plans without being aware.
“For ISIL to strike Turkey, when Yezid [Erdoğan] and his gang are their biggest supporters, is nonsensical. Both Suruç and Kilis were Yezid’s decision, not ISIL’s,” wrote Fuat Avni, who added Erdoğan is trying to provoke ISIL into reacting to the assaults.
The whistleblower refrains from directly using Erdoğan’s name. Instead he uses the reference “Yezid,” the Umayyad Caliph, who according to Islamic historical belief allowed his opponent, the grandson of Prophet Mohammed, to die of thirst in the battle of Kerbela. Due to his crime against the family of the Prophet, the name Yezid is commonly reviled in all sects of Islam and used to belittle and vilify the opponent.
Fuat Avni says Erdoğan aims to create an environment of chaos during which MİT agents within ISIL will provoke the group and a conflict will ensue between ISIL militants and Turkish law enforcement personnel.
He also claims Fidan has activated MİT agents within the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) to start uprisings like those that began in October 2014 in the predominantly Kurdish Southeast.
Violence erupted on Oct. 6 and 7 in Kurdish southeastern regions following reports that ISIL was close to capturing the town of Kobani, which was being defended by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian-based affiliate of the outlawed PKK.
Protesters, who were angry at the government for not intervening to save the town despite a heavy military presence at the border, took to the streets nationwide. More than 40 people died during the protests, mainly in the Southeast, while hundreds of people — including 140 members of the security forces — were injured.