Turkey intentionally late in action against ISIL recruiters: Report

ISTANBUL

The mother (C) of Vatan Budak, a victim of the suicide bomb attack in Suruç on July 22, mourns during her son's funeral on August 4, 2015 in Istanbul. AFP Photo

Turkey’s Prime Ministry Coordination Center (BİMER) has taken no action against recruiters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), including the Suruç suicide bomber, according to a report by an inspection committee formed by several members from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), daily Cumhuriyet reported Aug 9.

“When I told Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu ‘my son took his wife to Syria,’ he said ‘fortunately, they went together, they will support each other,’” the report quoted the family of a young man who went to Syria to join ISIL was quoted as saying.

Suruç suicide bomber Şeyh Abdurrahman Alagöz, along with two militants identified by their initials H.H.P and M.S.K, were responsible for brainwashing young people to draft them into ISIL the families of young people going to Syria to join ISIL stated, adding that a relative of one of the young men who joined the terrorist organization filed two separate complaints over the issue, said the report, which was prepared by the CHP committee following a visit to the eastern province of Adıyaman.

“No action was taken [on a state level], except an investigation launched a short time ago, in spite of two separate official compliants filed in September 2013 via BİMER in an address to both the Turkish president and prime minister,” the report said.

Upon their visit to Adıyaman, CHP deputy head Veli Ağbaba told daily Cumhuriyet that the Turkish state had no weakness regarding ISIL militants’ recruiting activities, but rather encouraged them.

“The bottom line of what we see there is the state has no good intention toward [ISIL’s militant recruiting], but rather there is encouragement on this issue. For example, the mother of Orhan Gönder, the perpetrator of the bomb attack at the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) rally in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on June 5, took his son to the police and said ‘My son is from ISIL,’ but the police did nothing,” Ağbaba said.

The report also said would-be fighters could travel to join ISIL for as little as 20 Turkish Liras in ambulances that are dispatched to the border to pick up wounded jihadists.