Monday, April 11, 2016

ISIS and Turkish government

""The Islamic State has well-established networks in Turkey, with clusters of people based in Istanbul, Ankara, Konya, Adana, Izmir, ŞanlıUrfa and the Gaziantep. These networks funnel men and material to the Syrian civil war, with the city of Gaziantep serving as a key hub for cross-border trade and the manufacture of suicide vests and explosives used in at least two Islamic State attacks in Turkey." "The Islamic State appears to have grafted on to older, well-established Al Qaeda-linked networks in Turkey. In at least two instances (Osman Karahan in Istanbul and the Konya-based Mustafa Guneş), Turkish men helped to recruit for Al Qaeda affiliates. In both cases, these men also had links to veterans of the Afghan jihad in the 1980s."