Turkey updates terror list, shifts al-Nusra Front’s place

Sevil Erkuş - ANKARA

REUTERS Photo

The Turkish government has updated its official terrorist organization list, removing the al-Nusra Front from the group listed under the title “al-Qaeda in Iraq.” However, the changes published in the Official Gazette on June 18 kept al-Nusra listed as a “terrorist organization.” 

The al-Nusra Front, Jabhet al-Nusra, and the Victory Front were added to Turkey’s “list of al-Qaeda-linked organizations” on June 3, in an update made to an appendix of a Cabinet motion originally published in the Official Gazette on Sept. 30, 2013. The motion was related to the freezing of assets of individuals and organizations listed as terrorist by the United Nations Security Council.

However, after the U.N. Security Council updated its list regarding the al-Nusra Front, Turkey also amended its list, a Turkish diplomat told the Hürriyet Daily News. According to the updated list, al-Nusra and related groups have been removed from the “al-Qaeda in Iraq” list, but are still on the list grouped under “al-Qaeda-affiliated organizations,” the diplomat said. 

Despite both having originated as branches of al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the al-Nusra Front split, and have been fighting each other in Syria since 2013.