Feb 20, 2015

According to press reports yesterday [Feb. 19], Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) has issued a warning that Islamic State (IS) militants who had to withdraw from Kobani have infiltrated Turkey. Further, IS was preparing for bomb attacks against embassies and consulates in Ankara and Istanbul. About 3,000 militants, including leaders who plan such attacks, are now in Turkey without any surveillance, mostly living in safe houses. If these reports are accurate, it means that we are now facing the possibly the most terrifying consequences of the government’s lunatic Syria policy.

What will the government do? Those who dare to ask might end up in prison because the government is preoccupied with covering up its dirty operations in Syria by imposing censorship on the press and enacting prohibitive legislation. According to some observers, MIT chief Hakan Fidan, who is accused of being the architect of this set-up, has resigned to arm himself with parliamentary immunity against prosecution.

While the government is frenetically denying accusations about Syria, these charges are now finding their way into court documents. The prosecutor who is dealing with the case of IS militants who attacked security forces at Nigde obtained some damning clues by tapping the phones of defendants. These documents, which reached daily Cumhuriyet writer Ahmet Sik, expose the diabolic networks the government has formed with Jabhat al-Nusra and similar organizations.

In the meantime, Robert Ford, the last US ambassador in Damascus, in a recent interview with McClatchy newspapers, made serious accusations against Turkey. What he says counts. Ford was the most fervent supporter of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) when it first appeared. Just like Ankara, he was thinking that the FSA should be equipped with heavy weapons to topple Bashar al-Assad.

But when Washington found it adequate to maintain its relations with the Syrian opposition through the CIA based out of Gaziantep, Ford resigned in anger. He has totally reversed his standing today. Accusing the opposition of going after each other and of cooperating with Jabhat al-Nusra, Ford now believes the opposition should no longer be given weapons because they, just like their Qatar and Turkey patrons, insist that Jabhat al-Nusra is but an anti-Assad local force. But Jabhat al-Nusra is an extension of al-Qaeda. Its ideology is no different from IS. Ford also says that the agreement signed yesterday between the United States and Turkey to train and equip the moderate opposition against IS will not serve any purpose.