A former member of ISIS has revealed the extent
to which the cooperation of the Turkish military allows the terrorist
group, who now control large parts of Iraq and Syria, to travel through
Turkish territory to reinforce fighters battling Kurdish forces.
A reluctant former communications technician working for
Islamic State, now going by the pseudonym ‘Sherko Omer’, who managed to
escape the group, told Newsweek that he travelled in a convoy
of trucks as part of an ISIS unit from their stronghold in Raqqa, across
Turkish border, through Turkey and then back across the border to
attack Syrian Kurds in the city of Serekaniye in northern Syria in
February.
“ISIS commanders told us to fear nothing at all because
there was full cooperation with the Turks,” said Omer of crossing the
border into Turkey, “and they reassured us that nothing will happen,
especially when that is how they regularly travel from Raqqa and Aleppo
to the Kurdish areas further northeast of Syria because it was
impossible to travel through Syria as YPG [National Army of Syrian
Kurdistan] controlled most parts of the Kurdish region.”
Until last month, NATO member Turkey had blocked Kurdish
fighters from crossing the border into Syria to aid their Syrian
counterparts in defending the border town of Kobane. Speaking to
Newsweek, Kurds in Kobane said that people attempting to carry supplies
across the border were often shot at.
YPG spokesman Polat Can went even further, saying that
Turkish forces were actively aiding ISIS. “There is more than enough
evidence with us now proving that the Turkish army gives ISIS terrorists
weapons, ammunitions and allows them to cross the Turkish official
border crossings in order for ISIS terrorists to initiate inhumane
attacks against the Kurdish people in Rojava [north-eastern Syria].”
Omer explained that during his time with ISIS, Turkey had
been seen as an ally against the Kurds. “ISIS saw the Turkish army as
its ally especially when it came to attacking the Kurds in Syria. The
Kurds were the common enemy for both ISIS and Turkey. Also, ISIS had to
be a Turkish ally because only through Turkey they were able to deploy
ISIS fighters to northern parts of the Kurdish cities and towns in
Syria.”
“ISIS and Turkey cooperate together on the ground on the basis that they have a common enemy to destroy, the Kurds,” he added.
While Newsweek was not able to independently verify Omer’s
testimony, anecdotal evidence of Turkish forces turning a blind eye to
ISIS activity has been mounting over the past month.
Omer, the son of a successful businessman in Iraqi
Kurdistan, initially went to Syria to join the Free Syrian Army’s fight
against Bashar al-Assad, but found himself sucked in to ISIS, unable to leave. He was given a job as a communication technician, and worked at the ISIS communications bureau in Raqqa.
“I have connected ISIS field captains and commanders from Syria with people in Turkey on innumerable occasions,” said Omer.
“I rarely heard them speak in Arabic, and that was only
when they talked to their own recruiters, otherwise, they mostly spoke
in Turkish because the people they talked to were Turkish officials of
some sorts because ISIS guys used to be very serious when they talked to
them.”
Omer was then transferred to a battalion travelling to
fight Kurdish forces in Serekaniya, north-eastern Syria, and describes
travelling through Turkey in a convoy of trucks, staying at safehouses
along the way, before crossing back into Syria at the Ceylanpinar border
crossing.
Before crossing the border back into Syria, he says: “My
ISIS commander reassured us once again that it was all going to be all
right because cooperation had been made with the Turks. He frequently
talked on the radio in Turkish.”
“While we tried to cross the Ceylanpinar border post, the
Turkish soldiers' watchtower light spotted us. The commander quickly
told us to stay calm, stay in position and not to look at the light. He
talked on the radio in Turkish again and we stayed in our positions.
Watchtower light then moved about 10 minutes later and the commander
ordered us to move because the watchtower light moving away from us was
the signal that we could safely cross the border into Serekaniye."
Once in Serekaniye, Omer says he surrendered to
Kurdish forces when they attacked his camp. He was held for several
months before his captors were convinced that he had not been a fighter
in ISIS and had not taken part in violence.
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