Turkish protesters march with a burnt national flag as they shout slogans against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan during a demonstration against the Turkish government’s policy on Syria, after car bombings struck the border town of Reyhanli, May 13, 2013.

Turkey continues to deny that it is lenient
with radical groups fighting to establish an Islamic regime in Syria,
let alone actively supporting them, and the government of Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now much more open in its criticism of these
groups than was initially the case.

The Erdogan government also announced measures in the Official Gazette on Oct. 10 freezing the financial assets of 349 people and 67 legal entities said by the UN Security Council to be linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Despite these steps, however, Ankara continues to be accused of turning
a blind eye as members of these groups use Turkish territory for
various purposes in their fight not just against the Assad regime, but
also the moderate elements of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Syrian
Kurds.
Meanwhile, the spin being developed in the pro-government Islamist
Turkish media is that the presence of these al-Qaeda-affiliated Sunni
groups in Syria is actually a ploy on the part of Shiite Iran to
undermine Ankara’s Syrian policy in order to support President Bashar
al-Assad and his regime.
It is of course no secret that the Erdogan government initially
supported the group known as Jabhat al-Nusra in the belief that it was
the most effective fighting force against Assad. Ankara was also unhappy
when the United States listed Jabhat al-Nusra as a terrorist
organization in December 2012, believing this to be a premature step
which would strengthen Assad’s hand. Today, however, the Erdogan
government argues vehemently that it never supported Jabhat al-Nusra or
any other radical group in Syria, saying it is opposed to terrorism
wherever it comes from.
“We have said this over and over, both I and the prime minister. Turkey
has no relations with any radical group in Syria, and I am especially
referring to Jabhat al-Nusra. This accusation is ugly propaganda on the
part of those who want to overshadow Turkey’s humanitarian policy in
Syria,” said Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu during an interview with CNN Turk in September.
New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), which is accusing radical
Sunni groups of massacring Alawite villagers in Syria, appears, however,
not to be satisfied with such assurances. In its Oct. 11 report titled Syria: Executions, Hostage Taking by Rebels,
HRW names Ahrar al-Sham, Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS),
Jabhat al-Nusra, Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar and Suquor al-Izz as the
five armed groups “responsible for specific incidents that amount to war
crimes.”
The report goes on to indicate that foreign members of these groups are
entering Syria “from Turkey, from which they also smuggle their weapons
and obtain money and other supplies, and to which they retreat for
medical treatment.”
It adds, “Turkey should increase border patrols and prevent the entry
of fighters and arms for groups credibly implicated in systematic human
rights violations. Turkey should also investigate and prosecute, under
the principle of universal jurisdiction and in accordance with national
laws, anyone in Turkey suspected of committing, being complicit in or
having command responsibility for war crimes and crimes against
humanity.”
HRW, which goes on to call on the UN Security Council and Ankara’s
allies in particular “to do more to verify that no arms are passing
through Turkey to abusive groups,”  is not the only one calling on
Turkey to do more in this respect.
Salih Muslim, the leader of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD),
which controls a number of towns and villages in northern Syria, has
also accused Ankara in a series of recent interviews with Taraf columnist Amberin Zaman, who is also an Al-Monitor contributor, of aiding radical elements that have also been fighting with the PYD.
Muslim maintained in a September interview that Ankara was providing
members of radical Islamist groups in Syria, and especially those
fighting with the PYD, with medical care and supplying them with arms
and ammunition. He also claimed Turkish border units were picking off PYD fighters with targeted fire while ensuring that roads were kept open for Jabhat al-Nusra elements fighting the PYD.
In his latest interview with Zaman
on Oct. 7, Muslim appears more appreciative of Erdogan’s criticism of
radical Islamist groups in Syria — who recently killed Muslim’s son
— but is still skeptical on the question of Turkish assistance to these
groups.
“Let’s see if after this, Turkey continues to train these gangs who
chop off heads and eat the livers of their victims in camps reported to
be operating at Bolu Mountain and in Ceylanpinar state agricultural
farms,” Muslim said, naming two alleged camps in Turkey.
His remark came after the al-Qaeda-affiliated ISIS, which is considered
the most hard-line of these groups, captured the Syrian town of Azaz
near the Turkish border from moderate FSA elements in September.
That development caused serious concern in Ankara and resulted in a new evaluation of these groups by the Erdogan government.
Around 500 Turks are also said to be included among the members of these radical groups,
according to press reports based on estimates from sources in the
Turkish intelligence agency MIT.  Family members of these fighters have
indicated in interviews that the radical groups recruit the young men in
towns such as Adiyaman, which alone was reported by Radikal on Sept. 29 to have provided 200 recruits. Radical
also said in its report on the subject that the governor’s office in
Adiyaman and the local police headquarters refused to comment on the
subject.
Despite official statements and some steps taken by the government,
there is still a shroud of mystery over the whole topic. It is not clear
if Turkey is still supporting these radical groups one way or another,
or if it is actually incapable of controlling their cross-border
activities given the length of the Turkish- Syrian border.
Turkey has had great difficulty in controlling this border in the past,
and it has been used relatively freely by the separatist Kurdistan
Workers Party, which has been fighting the Turkish army for nearly 30
years.
Whatever the case may be, these al-Qaeda-affiliated groups, which have
no democratic agenda for Syria, are becoming a political and security
liability for the Erdogan government. A recent article in the
pro-government Zaman is also telling in this respect.
Citing experts from Turkish universities and think tanks, Zaman maintained in an article on Oct. 13
that Iran is ultimately behind accusations leveled at Turkey for
allegedly allowing its border to be used by radical elements. Tehran’s
alleged aim, according to those speaking to the paper, is “to broaden
Assad’s field of operation while squeezing Turkey into a corner.”
Zaman added that Iran had successfully used ISIS to drive a
wedge between Syrians combating Assad, and was now trying to leave
Ankara in a difficult situation internationally by forcing it into a
situation where it faces charges of supporting such groups.
Although the credibility of these claims are questionable, the Zaman
report nevertheless shows that the Islamic media in Turkey is trying to
rationalize a situation that has gone seriously wrong for the Erdogan
government, according to its own ideological outlook.
But such spin is not likely to alleviate the pressure mounting on
Ankara to take decisive action against these groups that take their cue
from al-Qaeda and have little to do with democracy or human rights in
Syria.
Semih Idiz is a columnist for Al-Monitor’s Turkey
Pulse. A journalist who has been covering diplomacy and foreign policy
issues for major Turkish newspapers for 30 years, his opinion pieces can
be followed in the English-language Hurriyet Daily News. His articles have also been published in The Financial Times, The Times of London, Mediterranean Quarterly and Foreign Policy magazine.

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