The flags of ISIS and Turkey ought to fly side by side, and the USA's Stars and Stripes should be up there too, so long as Obama remains in power (Image Source)
Turkey had been widely criticized for not doing enough to assist in the fight against ISIS. In fact, we have published here a lot of evidence (some of it sourced from The Dark Web but a lot publicly available) to suggest that Ankara was cooperating with the group by ensuring funds through illegal oil trades and acting as a conduit for US supplied weapons. Turkey's links with ISIS are so undeniable and well documented now, even mainstream media have had to start reporting this news, even though it is embarrassing for NATO and western governments
An official familiar with a large cache of intelligence seized in a raid last summer told the Guardian that “direct dealings between Turkish officials and ranking ISIS members was now ‘undeniable.’” and that "the ISIS official responsible for oil smuggling was well known to Turkey". Also a former ISIS fighter told Newsweek last year that Turkey was allowing ISIS oil trucks from Raqqa to cross the “border, through Turkey and then back across the border to attack Syrian Kurds in the city of Serekaniye in northern Syria in February.” ISIS members, the source said, would freely travel through Turkey in a convoy of trucks, and stop “at safehouses along the way.”
From last summer Turkey, under international pressure and with public opinion at home turning against the Erdogan regime, seemingly forgot about the previous complicity when Erdogan granted the US access to Incirlik from which Washington was henceforth allowed to fly its half hearted combat missions which eventually frustrated Russian leader Vladimir Putin so much he ordered a Russian intervention from Syria after President Assad asked his allies for help. That, combined with Erdogan’s promise to step up the war on “terror,” was supposed to be "proof" of Turkey’s commitment to defeating ISIS although in fast Turkey's primary objective, like that of its allies USA and Sadui Arabia is the removal of Assad in Syria.
Despite numerous reports to suggest that Turkey wasn’t striking ISIS at all, but rather simply targeting the PKK (Kurdish rebel group with whom Turkey has been at war for years), the mainstream media generally stuck to the script that said Ankara had officially joined the war on Islamic State.
And then, in November, Vladimir Putin pushed Turkey’s cozy relationship with ISIS back into the spotlight following Ankara’s move to down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border. Since then, the world has begun to question whose side the Turks are really on, especially in light of the evidence Moscow has presented linking Erdogan to Islamic State’s illicit oil trade.
Eyebrows were also raised when Erdogan jailed several generals who dared to inspect a weapons-laden MiT trucks crossing the border with Syria.
This week, we get the latest evidence that Turkey is Islamic State’s number one state sponsor as Cumhuriyet released transcripts of phone calls that allegedly took place between Turkish military officers and Mustafa Demir, the ISIS commander on the Syria-Turkey border.
The transcripts are part of a court case on ISIS at the Ankara 3rd High Criminal Court. “The issues alleged in the case came to light because of an investigation launched following information given by six Turkish citizens whose relatives joined ISIL,” Today’s Zaman reports. “Upon the application by the relatives, monitoring of the communications of 19 people started, and a prosecutor named Derda Gökmen reportedly filed a claim against 27 suspects.”
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