Turkish Newspaper: Turkey shipped weapons and jihadists into Syria

Cumhuriyet Challenges Erdogan’s attempt to Censor the press. The same newspaper that leaked details about Turkey’s moves to arm Syrian rebels has now leaked information about how the Erdogan administration, through its intelligence arm, also coordinated the movement of jihadi fighters from Turkish territory to Syria. The Turkish intelligence services (MIT) seem to have organized the transport of jihadi fighters across Turkish territory and into Syria, reported today the Turkish opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet. It is the same newspaper which revealed a few days ago with photos and a video the alleged transfer of weapons in Turkish trucks controlled by MIT to Syrian territory. After that, the newspaper now reports on its cover that MIT was also involved in the transportation of jihadist guerrillas. The fighters were taken in two buses from Atme IDP camp, near the Turkish border in the northwest corner of Syria to Tel Abiad, 200 kilometers further east. According to Cumhuriyet, the movement of weapons and jihadi fighters took place on January 9, 2014 and a few days later, on January 13. Tel Abyad was conquered by the terrorist group identified as the Islamic State soon after the deployment of those weapons and those militia members. While going through Turkish territory, the jihadists surrounded the area of ​​Afrin in the hands of Kurdish militias, and Aleppo, where fighting units of the Free Syrian Army were also at odds with extremists groups. The revelations by the Turkish daily are based on the statements of the bus drivers who appeared before a court when questioned by the discovery of ammunition in those vehicles. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s supporters accuse Cumhuriyet of “espionage” for having published photos and video footage of the Turkish arms shipments to Syria. The newspaper’s editor, Can Dundar, has been sued by Erdogan’s attorney for making public the revelations and could be sentenced to life in prison for it. Yihadist fighters and weapons The recent publication, with videos and photos of an alleged shipment of arms from Ankara to jihadists in Syria has caused shock and threatens to further polarize the already tense relations between the government and the opposition. The images show how alleged gendarmerie units from the Turkish army coordinate the movement of weapons and en into Syria, which is what the newspaper has reported. Strangely, the Turkish president did not get bothered much about the content of the photos, but because the same were publicly released by the newspaper. According to the newspaper editor himself, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has filed a complaint against the chief editor of a newspaper that published information. The lawsuit, which asks for two life sentences against Can Dündar, argues that such information was a collaborative act with a supposed organization of conspirators who mounted a plot to create the impression that Turkey helped terrorist organizations . The government says that the trucks were bringing aid to Turkmen populations and that the allegations of arms shipments to the jihadists are false and part of an operation, by what he calls a “parallel state” to overthrow the government. Before the formal charges were presented, Erdogan had announced in a television interview that the journalist would pay a “heavy price” for that information. Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, have shown their support for the journalist and recalled that press freedom is an essential part of democracy. The NGO Human Rights Watch also denounced the investigation opened by the prosecutor against the journalist and the newspaper that published the reports. Read the rest below at the source link