Turkey’s terror sponsorship is worse than imagined

Published March 19, 2019 4:11pm ET



I have written much over the years about Turkey’s complicity with terrorism over the past decade. Interviews with a captured Islamic State prisoner, however, make clear that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s terror complicity is worse than many imagined, and not just because his son-in-law was dealing in Islamic State oil. Consider this piece from Homeland Security Today based on prison interviews with Abu Mansour al Maghrebi, the Islamic State’s liaison with Turkey’s intelligence service:

‘My job was to direct operatives to receive the foreign fighters in Turkey,’ Abu Mansour explains, referring to the network of ISIS-paid people who facilitated foreign fighter travel from Istanbul to the Turkish border towns of Gaziantep, Antakya, Sanliurfa, etc. ‘Most of them were paid by Dawlah [ISIS],’ Abu Mansour explains, but differentiates them from ISIS members, due to their non-ideological motivations. ‘Most of those working on the Turkish side, their goal is money,’ he said. Although when asked about ISIS networks inside Turkey, he also admits, ‘Many in Turkey believe and give their bayat [oath of allegiance] to Dawlah. There are ISIS guys living in Turkey, individuals and groups, but no armed groups inside Turkey.’

Anne Speckhard and Ardian Shajkovci, respectively director and senior fellow of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism, further detail how Abu Mansour became the Islamic State’s de facto ambassador:

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