Turkish border is a two-way street: easy for French Islamic terror suspect to leave and others to come in
There is a very informative article today about what is happening in Turkey where it is believed that the Paris ‘wife’ (Hayat Boumeddiene) of one of the recent Muslim killers easily slipped into Turkey and then equally easily crossed into the IS stronghold in Syria.
We previously heard that Obama’s only real pal in the world was Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. I wonder if they are still best buds? Here with their wives in 2009. Photo:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan_with_Obamas.jpg
You can sure tell which couple is thinking 'Do you LIKE us?!' --tma
You can sure tell which couple is thinking 'Do you LIKE us?!' --tma
Compounding the terrorist detection problem is the deteriorating relationship of other European countries with Turkey.
The story is from an Australian paper called the Bega District News and written by Middle East Correspondent Ruth Pollard.
Here are some snips relating to the very real problem that the refugee population there surely harbors Islamic State infiltrators.
Setting the stage:
It is a conduit for money, weapons, oil and fighters – and it rarely discriminates.
Whether you’re a moderate rebel or an Islamic State jihadist, Turkey’s 900-kilometre border with Syria has long been a vital supply route for those fighting on the front lines of Syria’s brutal civil war. More than 1.5 million refugees have also fled across this border.
But Turkey’s hope that any fighter – no matter how extreme – would help opposition rebels bring down the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has proven unfounded.
Instead, Assad remains in power, while extremist groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaeda backed Jabhat al-Nusra have gained significant ground at the expense of what’s left of the Free Syrian Army and the other groups fighting to overthrow the regime.
And all the while, the terror these extremist groups practise is creeping ever closer towards Turkey.
Then near the end:
It is naive to believe that all the refugees who cross from Syria into Turkey are genuinely fleeing the regime, Sadik (Assistant Professor Giray Sadik from the Yildirim Beyazit University) says.
“It is almost inevitable that there will be some fighters in the almost 2 million refugees we have hosted since the eruption of the Syrian crisis. There is a need for enhanced security cooperation and also emergency humanitarian cooperation with the EU – on both sides it is far from being satisfactory.”
One thing is certain, he says. Turkey, like Europe, is vulnerable to attack because of its borders and the presence of foreign fighters on its soil.
US taking refugees from Turkey
Back in September 2014 we reported that the US State Department sent Simon Henshaw to discuss taking Syrian refugees from Turkey, here. We haven’t resettled too many Syrians yet, only a few hundred, but I see in State Department statistics that we have processed 1,340 refugees through Turkey in only the first three months of this fiscal year (Oct-Dec 2014). I wonder who they are. ...
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