‘OK, big brother’: Turkish military cooperate with ISIS on border, telephone calls reveal
Published time: 23 Feb, 2016 13:48Edited time: 23 Feb, 2016 15:48
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© Sertac Kayar / Reuters
published the first batch in December.
The new transcripts
published by the daily Monday are said to be conversations between Turkish officers and Mustafa Demir, a member of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIL/ISIS) who is a leading figure on the Syrian-Turkish border.
“The transcripts and the documents in the investigation revealed that Demir received money… from smugglers at the border and cooperated with the officers as far as [border] crossings are concerned,”Cumhuriyet said.
‘Don’t let people die’: Turkish TV show accused of 'terrorist propaganda', investigated
https://t.co/DigtPmnk7jpic.twitter.com/DDRtcGxP1e
— RT (@RT_com)
January 12, 2016
In the first transcript, translated into English by
Today’s Zaman, Demir is talking to a Turkish military officer.
- […] where are you, big brother? At the place where I told you to be?
- Yeah. We also saw you, your men…
- Is it possible for you to arrange that I talk with the commander here, regarding the business here? What if we could establish a contact here as we helped you...
- Okay [...] I'll pass this now. I have two military posts there. If the worst comes to the worst, I'll tell that to the commander of the station and have him take a look…
In another transcript, Demir allegedly talks with another Turkish officer, who says that he and his comrades are “
in the minefield” and calls Demir to come to him immediately.
“We have stuff; come here from that side, the men are here...,” the transcript says.
“Okay, big brother, [I'm] coming…Is it [the mine field] the place where I gave First Lieutenant Burak a car?” Demir reportedly answers.
READ MORE: ‘Erdogan was in a fix’: Jailed Cumhuriyet chief on why Turkey punished journos for Syria revelations
Suruç & Ankara patlamaları emrini veren IŞİD Türk emiri İlhami Balı'nın yeni saldırı talimatları verdiği iddiası var
pic.twitter.com/yrqtycRY4G
— TEO (@teo_dorakis)
December 11, 2015
Mustafa is reported to have close ties with an IS leader, İlhami Balı, believed to be responsible for suicide bombings in Ankara, which rocked the capital in October, killing more 100 people.
READ MORE: Mystery over who bombed Turkish convoy allegedly carrying weapons to militants in Syria
This is not the only case of cooperation between Turkish military and Islamic State militants
Cumhuriyet newspaper has revealed. In May, it reported that a Turkish convoy that was presumably hit by an airstrike in northwestern Syria was transporting weapons to terrorist organizations.
In November the editor-in-chief of the
Cumhuriyet newspaper, Can Dundar, and its Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gul, were arrested and are currently at the Silivri prison awaiting trial. No date has been set yet. Turkish prosecutors are demanding life sentences for both jounalists.
Dundar and Gul are charged each with one count of
“gathering secret state documents for the purposes of political and military espionage,” as well as
“attempting to topple the government of the Republic of Turkey.”