Daesh on Edge after Turkey Tightens Militant Highway: Report
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Along the border near the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, a wall of giant concrete blocks is going up as Turkey tries to seal off a region that for years was a Takfriri militant highway through which thousands of extremists flowed to join Daesh in neighboring Syria.
Turkey has always denied permitting the movement of Daesh (also known as ISIL and ISIS) militants into Syria and insists it has been doing its best to stop the transit, even before construction on the massive wall began late last year.
Documents obtained by The Associated Press, however, tell a different story, showing a pattern of porousness along Turkey's 566-mile- (911-kilometer-) long border with Syria that has been vital for the extremist group's expansion as it built its self-declared "caliphate."
The AP analyzed 4,037 "entry documents" logged by the Daesh group for its militants entering from Turkey into Syria between September 2013 and December 2014. Around three-quarters of them entered through three particular crossing areas.
Those militants alone would make up between 25 to 40 percent of the estimated total of Daesh foreign recruits, and they likely do not represent all fighters that entered through Turkey during that period. According to CIA estimates, Daesh had 20,000-31,500 fighters by the end of 2014, around half of them foreigners. The documents were leaked to a Syrian opposition news site, Zaman al-Wasl, which provided them to the AP.
A deadly bombing of Istanbul's international airport on June 28 that killed 44 people raised fears that Turkey is paying a price for Daesh’s free movement through its territory. Some analysts believe Daesh struck in revenge for Turkey's support for the so-called US-led coalition against the terrorist group, its tighter border controls and its backing for rebels working to recapture the last stretch of the border that the extremist group still holds on the Syrian side.
The ease with which militants crossed into Syria from Turkey has long brought accusations that Ankara's determination to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad by backing Syrian militants trumped any concerns over fueling the extremist movement. The relatively open border was crucial for rebels, including ones backed by the United States, and they used Turkish territory as a crucial rear base and supply route. It was also a life-saving escape route for some 2.75 million refugees who fled into Turkey and an avenue for humanitarian aid to opposition-held areas of Syria.
"Until the rise of ISIS in 2014, Turkey was basically turning a blind eye to radical foreign fighters who were crossing into Syria," said Turkish analyst Soner Cagaptay, an expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Turkey deported about 3,250 foreign fighters from 2011 to March 2016, according to the Foreign Ministry. This year, Turkey has detained 1,654 Daesh suspects, Interior Minister Efkan Ala said recently. Of those, 663 remain in custody, more than half of them foreigners.
Daesh has not claimed responsibility in the triple suicide attack at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, but Turkish officials suspect it is behind it. The group has boasted in the past about having cells in Turkey. Security forces have been busy rounding up Daesh suspects in the wake of the bombing.
"Turkey has the power, determination and capacity to continue the fight against terrorism until the end," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after the attack.
The documents don't specify if the militants used the official crossings or smuggling routes nearby - but witnesses told the AP they used both.
A Syrian smuggler who works in the Syrian border area of al-Rai says that until November, the area, including the Jarablus crossing, was heavily trafficked by Daesh terrorists. He says the group would bring in 30 to 40 people daily at the border at his village.
The Daesh entry documents list 190 fighters who crossed through al-Rai in 2014.
That route, however, was shut down when Kurdish led-forces took Tal Abyad in June 2015.
Still, some Turks blame Ankara's policies for the airport attack. About 200 protesters shouted against the ruling Justice and Development Party last week, accusing it of supporting the Daesh group.
"The government supports Daesh, and innocent people are killed," said protester Berivan Tanriverdi.