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‘Islamic
State and Turkey cooperate to destroy the Kurds':
Former IS member reveals Turkish army cooperation
By Barney Guiton, News Week |
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Islamic State militants talk with Turkish soldiers
on the border. Photo: DIHA
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November 7, 2014
A former member of ISIS has revealed the extent
to which the cooperation of the Turkish military and
border forces allows the terrorist group, who now
control large parts of Iraq and Syria, to travel
through Turkish territory to reinforce fighters
battling Kurdish forces.
A reluctant former communications technician working
for Islamic State, going by the pseudonym ‘Sherko
Omer’, who managed to escape the group, told
Newsweek that he travelled in a convoy of trucks as
part of an ISIS unit from their stronghold in Raqqa,
across Turkish border, through Turkey and then back
across the border to attack Syrian Kurds in the city
of Serekaniye in northern Syria in February, in
order to bypass their defences.
“ISIS commanders told us to fear nothing at all
because there was full cooperation with the Turks,”
said Omer of crossing the border into Turkey, “and
they reassured us that nothing will happen,
especially when that is how they regularly travel
from Raqqa and Aleppo to the Kurdish areas further
northeast of Syria because it was impossible to
travel through Syria as YPG controlled most parts of
the Kurdish region.”
Until last month, NATO member Turkey had blocked
Kurdish fighters from crossing the border into Syria
to aid their Syrian counterparts in defending the
border town of Kobane. Speaking to Newsweek, Kurds
in Kobane said that people attempting to carry
supplies across the border were often shot at.
National Army of Syrian Kurdistan (YPG) spokesman
Polat Can went even further, saying that Turkish
forces were actively aiding ISIS. “There is more
than enough evidence with us now proving that the
Turkish army gives ISIS terrorists weapons,
ammunitions and allows them to cross the Turkish
official border crossings in order for ISIS
terrorists to initiate inhumane attacks against the
Kurdish people in Rojava [north-eastern Syria].”
Omer explained that during his time with ISIS,
Turkey had been seen as an ally against the Kurds.
“ISIS saw the Turkish army as its ally especially
when it came to attacking the Kurds in Syria. The
Kurds were the common enemy for both ISIS and
Turkey. Also, ISIS had to be a Turkish ally because
only through Turkey they were able to deploy ISIS
fighters to northern parts of the Kurdish cities and
towns in Syria.”
“ISIS and Turkey cooperate together on the ground on
the basis that they have a common enemy to destroy,
the Kurds,” he added.
While Newsweek was not able to independently verify
Omer’s testimony, anecdotal evidence of Turkish
forces turning a blind eye to ISIS activity has been
mounting over the past month.
Omer, the son of a successful businessman in Iraqi
Kurdistan, initially went to Syria to join the Free
Syrian Army’s fight against Bashar al-Assad, but
found himself sucked in to ISIS, unable to leave. He
was given a job a communication technician, and
worked at the ISIS communications bureau in Raqqa.
“I have connected ISIS field captains and commanders
from Syria with people in Turkey on innumerable
occasions,” said Omer.
“I rarely heard them speak in Arabic, and that was
only when they talked to their own recruiters,
otherwise, they mostly spoke in Turkish because the
people they talked to were Turkish officials of some
sorts because ISIS guys used to be very serious when
they talked to them.”
Omer was then transferred to a battalion travelling
to fight Kurdish forces in Serekaniya, north-eastern
Syria, and describes travelling through Turkey in a
convoy of trucks, staying at safehouses along the
way, before crossing back into Syria at the
Ceylanpinar border crossing.
Before crossing the border back into Syria, he says:
“My ISIS commander reassured us once again that it
was all going to be all right because cooperation
had been made with the Turks. He frequently talked
on the radio in Turkish.”
“While we tried to cross the Ceylanpinar border
post, the Turkish soldiers' watchtower light spotted
us. The commander quickly told us to stay calm, stay
in position and not to look atwww.Ekurd.net
the light. He talked
on the radio in Turkish again and we stayed in our
positions. Watchtower light then moved about 10
minutes later and the commander ordered us to move
because the watchtower light moving away from us was
the signal that we could safely cross the border
into Serekaniye."
Once in Serekaniye, Omer says he surrendered to
Kurdish forces when they attacked his camp. He was
held for several months before his captors were
convinced that he had not been a fighter in ISIS and
had not taken part in violence.
Copyright ©, respective author or news agency,
newsweek.com
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