Israel Matzav

'If we were serious about fighting Islamic terror, we wouldn't have Turkey as a partner'

Jonathan Schanzer has a devastating expose on Turkey's role in supporting and 'combating' Islamic terror - both at the same time.

Turkey's lax border policies have enabled ISIS to finance and arm its fighters in Syria; ISIS cells are now operating throughout Turkey.

And Turkey also helped Iran, a state sponsor of terror, evade sanctions to the tune of billions of dollars in 2012 and 2013. Yet this week, Turkey chaired the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum in New York.

It could be an item from The Onion — except it's not satire.

Launched in 2011 after the failure of previous multilateral groups to tackle terrorism, the 30-country GCTF has itself become a farce — not least because Turkey is the co-chair, along with the United States.

Turkey holds this honor because of its rare qualities: It is a Muslim country that is a trusted US and NATO ally.

But it has also become a hub for terrorist recruiting and support — most definitely including ISIS recruiting and support, as The New York Times has reported.

Yet the GCTF promotes Turkey as part of the solution, rather than a core part of the problem.
Nor are the problems new. In 2012, Turkey blocked Israel from joining the GCTF, though the Jewish state has vast anti-terrorist experience and intelligence.

Equally absurd, GCTF members include Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, all three of which help fund or otherwise sponsor terrorism.

What's amazing about this is not the positions that Turkey has taken (they're actually quite consistent), but rather the fact that both the US Congress and the media have mostly been silent about it.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, counterterrorism, Islamic terrorism, Pakistan, Qatar, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:05 PM