Court Documents Show Turkish Government Armed Islamists in Syria

By Dustin M Braden - 21 May '15 12:26PM

For the first time, there appears to be concrete evidence that the Turkish government was arming Islamist fighters in Syria.

Reuters reports that confirmation of the long held suspicions came in the form of prosecutor and police statements made in court, documentation of which was seen by a Reuters correspondent. The evidence contradicts Turkey's insistence that it has provided aid directly to Syrian Islamists battling the regime of Bashar al Assad.

Gendarmerie officers testified in court they stopped four trucks that were carrying various arms and weapons components such as rocket parts, ammunition, and semi-finished mortar shells. The stops took place in Nov. 2013, and Jan.19 2014. One truck was involved in the Nov. stop, while three were involved in the Jan.19 stop.

The gendarmerie were working off tips from prosecutors in both cases. The truck stopped in Nov. was seized, but the trucks stopped in the city of Adana on Jan. 19 continued on their way to Syria after the intelligence officials riding with the trucks threatened the gendarmerie and physically resisted their efforts to seize the trucks.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has publicly admitted the trucks stopped Jan. 19 belonged to the Turkish intelligence agency, MIT, but said they were only carrying humanitarian aid.

The prosecutors who ordered the raids have since been arrested and charged with revealing state secrets and ruining Turkey's image. The officers who carried out the raid have also been arrested and charged with various crimes including espionage and trying to overthrow the government.

Erdogan said that the prosecutors had no right to raid the trucks because they belong to MIT. This begs the question of how the prosecutors were supposed to know the trucks were carrying arms being supplied by the Turkish government, if the MIT is a clandestine agency that is supposed to operate in utter secrecy.

By the time of the raids, it was common knowledge that Islamist fighters for the Islamic State and Al Qaeda affiliated rebel groups were using Turkey to funnel fighters and arms into Syria from abroad.