Radical Groups Operate On Turkey’s Border
Turkey is increasingly identified as a country facilitating radical forces in Syria, and thereby isolated among its allies.
First there was the report by Human Rights Watch alleging that the massacres of Alawites in the Syrian regime-controlled Latakia area were carried out by Western-supported opposition groups crossing the Turkish border, and then there was the article in the Wall Street Journal that Hakan Fidan, the chief of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization [MIT], has been working as a "traffic cop" directing weapons shipments. This has pasted on Turkey the label of being "the country nurturing al-Qaeda linked groups." Of course, the government totally denies the charges.
What is going on around the border offers us a different view. A reliable source who works on humanitarian relief at the border told me: "Some time ago, 160 fighters were brought to Mersin port in a ship from Yemen. They were transported by buses to the Oncupinar border crossing. From there, a call was made to the commander of the Free Syrian Army [FSA]. When he came, there was bargaining and the middleman asked for $2 million for recruiting and transporting these fighters. Phone calls were placed to Saudi Arabia and the requested amount was transferred to a bank. Then the fighters crossed the border at Oncupinar to Syria’s Selame."
