Journalist Fehim Taştekin spoke to ARTI Gerçek TV about the regrouping of ISIS and noted that Turkey will be in trouble when more questions are asked about how ISIS was able to reorganise itself.
After the Haseke attack by ISIS in northeast Syria discussions have been arising about how ISIS was able to organise this attack. According to Fehim Taştekin Turkey played a key role.
“Will these issues not be discussed when ISIS regroups? For instance, ISIS has cells mainly in Ankara but also in many other cities like Konya, Bursa and Istanbul. The militants have come whose families fled to Turkey, of course, if ISIS regroups in Syria and if these issues are discussed, Turkey will be in trouble,” he says, adding that the trials of the ISIS members are not held in accordance with the law in Turkey either.
“Moreover, Turkey is also spreading propaganda that Turkey is the country fighting against ISIS the most. The Minister of Interior is always making statements of the numbers of ISIS who have been caught so far, but nothing is said about what happens to them after they are detained. They announce that say 7,000-8,000 ISIS members have been caught, but then they are absolved of all blame, or not tried. The Turkish judicial system has failed badly in this.”
The attack was under-reported in the Turkish media
Fehim Taştekin also noted that the latest attack by ISIS was very under-reported in the Turkish media. He thinks there is a reason for that:
“Turkey has very serious economic problems, Turkey has always used the Syrian issue to cover this up. They have always covered up Turkey’s real problems by talking about the fight against terrorism and these policies, but of course Turkey will not discuss ISIS because the issue will come back on them. How slack the policies of Turkey are in the fight against ISIS and information about how they view ISIS members will be revealed, so ISIS is not being discussed in the Turkish media.”
He continued:
“This policy provides a partial immunity opportunity for ISIS, so that it can regroup, there is war in Iraq, there is war in Syria, they can’t live in Iran anyway, Jordan is vigilant, I’m talking about the countries that have borders with Syria, although Saudi Arabia has ideological connections with ISIS, all these countries are in high alert, but there is no alarm at all in Turkey regarding the regrouping of ISIS.”
Turkey is an obstacle to a solution in Syria
He also commented about Turkey’s policies in Syria.
“Turkey is certainly trying to create a corridor on the border from Afrin to the River Tigris, and though they saw in the last operation, ‘Operation Peace Spring’ that it is not possible, still they insist on this policy. This is related to Turkey’s domestic policies, but it also creates an obstacle to the solution in Syria.”
Fehim Taştekin thinks that Turkey wants to create an obstacle to the achievements of Kurds and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
“On the one hand there are Kurdish achievements in the region, Turkey is putting a blockade on the status of this. Turkey is creating an obstacle to any solution achieved between Russia, the Kurds and the Syrian regime. With the participation of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and AANES in Geneva also being blocked by Turkey, this process is not progressing anyway, but Turkey is blocking that too.”
