“Turkey is the victim of IS”

Ankara / Manama

Turkey is the obvious victim of IS and those who criticise Turkey for no reason must change their attitude and start seeing the things as they are, AK Party Vice Chairman and In charge of Foreign Affairs Prof. Dr. Yasin Aktay said.

He spoke to DT News in the sidelines of a meeting with the delegation of Bahraini Journalists in Ankara.

He said that Turkey was passing through a transition period because of the snap elections and such criticisms during this time become more annoying.

“Who planted the IS and who is behind this terrorist organisation?” he questioned.

He said that it was mysterious when nobody stopped the IS fighters when they entered Mosul and 25000 armed soldiers of Iraqi army fled from the scene.

“It is also a mystery why Daesh never attacked Syrian regime so far and the vice versa,” he stated.

It is also a fact that there has been no serious war between the two. They both are fighting all the other parties like opposition, all the Arabs, and even the Free Syrian Army, but there is no conflict between the two, he said.

 “Daesh always attacks the enemies of Bashar al Asad. From this you can guess who is behind Asad,” said Dr Aktay, “At least we can say that they are not enemies of Asad,” he added.

Turkey is not seeking any revolution anywhere in the world, not even in Syria.  If Asad didn’t make that massacre and crime against humanity we would not have opposed him, he stated.

Dr Aktay said that the problem of Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTFs) is not restricted to Daesh only.

Turkey has brought the question of FTFs to the international community’s attention since the Syrian civil war broke out in March 2011.

Although international media outlets tend to focus on the influx of FTFs seeking to join Daesh to Syria, the fact that thousands of others crossed into the country via Iran and Lebanon to join the regime forces and other groups has gone largely unnoticed.

The surge of terrorist organisations and the FTFs in the region is just one of the myriad of problems created by the political crisis experienced in the Middle East.

 Every year, approximately 40 million tourists travel to Turkey. It is not only a practical challenge, but also a violation of civil liberties to conduct surveillance on all foreign nationals legally entering Turkey, he said.

 He said that in order to stop the influx of FTFs, European countries must take necessary security measures within their borders, at their airports and ports, and they should effectively share more information with the Turkish authorities.

 However, upon persistent warnings from Turkey, European governments have made a remarkable progress with regard to intelligence sharing.

 Turkish Armed Forces have developed a project entitled “Syrian Border Physical Security System” aimed at 7/24 surveillance on our border with Syria, preventing illegal border crossings and cross-border crimes, he said.

 The project sees the construction of 151 kilometers of modular wall, 56 kilometers of reinforced wire net and 15 kilometers of concrete based fence wire. 119 kilometers of the border will be illuminated for more effective patrolling activities, and 278 kilometers of border road will be renovated.

 This project is part of the “Integrated National Border Security System” project conducted by the Turkish Ministry of the Interior, which will enable the 7/24 surveillance of all land borders of Turkey via drones and balloons.