PRESS RELEASE
Russia’s UN Ambassador Churkin Details How Turkey Is Recruiting and Harboring Terrorists
Feb. 18, 2016 (EIRNS)—In a letter posted in the UN Official Documents System Search, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, has provided detailed information on Turkish intelligence’s role in recruiting individuals from Russia, who have gone over to fight against the Assad government, to push them into the Syrian conflict and later to carry out terrorist acts within Russia, a TASS report said today.
"Reportedly, representatives of [the Islamic State] ISIL —with the help from the Turkish intelligence services—have established an extensive network in Antalya for the recruitment of individuals who have arrived in Turkey from the post-Soviet States, to enable their participation in the Syrian conflict and possible transfer to Russia,"
says the Feb. 17 letter.
Churkin provided names of recruiters, among them, natives of Russia and Azerbaijan.
"They are led by a Russian Federation national, Ruslan Rastyamovich Khaibullov (also known as Baris Abdul or by the pseudonym: The Teacher), born on 1 April 1978 in Tatarstan. He lives with his family in Antalya. He has a Turkish permanent residence permit,"
wrote Churkin. Recruitment "takes place with the knowledge of the temporary detention center administration" in Antalya, Tass quoted the letter.
Churkin also made clear the route through which these terrorists are being pushed into Syria by the Turkish intelligence personnel. He said in September 2014, a group of over 1,000 fighters from the Islamic State terrorists, "who had come from countries in Europe and Central Asia," were allowed to cross into Syria from Turkey in the locality of Alikaila (Gaziantep). The routes where militants cross, pass in the vicinity of the Turkish-Syrian border through Antakya, Reyhanli, Topaz, Sanliurfa, and Hatay. In addition, Churkin noted that since last December, the Turkish intelligence services have organized "an air route for moving ISIL fighters from Syria through Turkey to Yemen using Turkish military air transport," the letter says.
Supplies of weapons, military hardware, and ammunition "are arriving from abroad via the Turkish port of Iskenderun," he said.
"Then the military equipment is transported from there through Hatay Province (Oncupinar border crossing) to the Syrian cities of Aleppo and Idlib on trucks belonging to these Turkish ["charity"] funds,"
including the IHH, which is sometimes called a "governmental non-governmental organization" because of its close ties to Turkish President Erdogan. Churkin listed the vehicle registration plates in his letter. Later, once in Syria, the weapons and ammunition are distributed among Turkmen fighters, TASS reported.
