On September 20, after three months of captivity, all 49 hostages held by the Islamic State in Northern Iraq, 46 Turkish and 3 Iraqi, were released in Tel Abyad, a town in Syria close to the Turkish border. The hostages were taken after the Islamic State had seized Turkey’s Mosul consulate in June. Among the hostages were the Consul General, other diplomats, their families and members of Turkish special forces.
Local media reported that during their 101-day captivity, the Turkish Intelligence agency, MIT, tracked the hostages as they were moved to eight different locations. In sharp contrast with the end of other hostage instances such as the two U.S. journalists and the British aid worker who ended up being murdered by IS, Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported that no ransom was paid to IS and no conditions were accepted in return for the release of the hostages.
The ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) officials took the opportunity to turn the release of hostages into a publicity stunt. Prime Minister Davutoğlu cut short an official visit to Azerbaijan and went to Şanlıurfa, the city where the hostages crossed into Turkey after being released. Davutoğlu flew into Ankara airport with the released hostages to meet a large crowd including the families of the hostages. As the hostages were uniting with their families, Davutoğlu gave a victory speech, broadcast live by all the national channels. Holding the daughter of the Consul General while the Consul General was standing next to him, now free thanks(!) to AKP, Davutoğlu said that the rescue operation was executed by MIT’s “own methods” and that no special forces were involved. Instead of giving any details on the negotiations that took place between AKP and IS for the release of hostages, Davutoğlu labelled anyone who would ask questions about it a “provocateur”:
“I know those who forced us to make statements on this issue just to show their opposition and at the expense of endangering the lives of these people. They said there was a secret deal. We have proven to the whole world and the provocateurs that for the Turkish state, even the hair of one of her citizens is worth more than the whole universe. My call is to those provocateurs: at least today, come and share this happiness. Leave speculation behind.”
President Erdoğan leaves the question on the claims of exchange of IS militants for the release of hostages unanswered
President Erdoğan released a statement thanking the Prime Minister for the pre-planned and secretly conducted operation to release the hostages. Like the PM, Erdoğan also went around the issue of how AKP had managed to secure the release of hostages from IS: “There are obviously issues we cannot talk about. Running a state is different than running a supermarket.”
Answering a question by a reporter on the claims that IS militants had been exchanged for the release of hostages, Erdoğan said: “Whether an exchange took place or not, we have our 46 citizens back home. Even if there were an exchange, as the President, what is important to me is the following: the value of my citizens cannot be traded for anything else.”
Commenting on the statements by AKP officials, a former Turkish diplomat, Sinan Ülgen noted: “The official explanation sounds a bit too good to be true…There are some very legitimate and unanswered questions about how this happened.”
Seventy thousands Kurds flee to Turkey from IS attacks in Rojava
While AKP officials are busy greeting the hostages, enjoying the publicity stunt, there is a different story unveiling in the same region, Rojava, where the hostages were released. About 70 thousand Syrian Kurds are reported to have fled Rojava region to Turkey as IS fighters seized more than 60 villages in their advance towards Kobane or Ayn Al-Arab, Syria’s third largest Kurdish town.
In the Turkish border town of Suruç, in Urfa province, Turkish police and army tear gassed local Kurds who had set up a support tent for the refugees coming into Turkey from Kobane. Several people including a deputy of the Kurdish opposition party HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) are reported wounded. Government officials claimed that the police were attempting to keep the locals from entering Syria. Turkey closed the Turkish side of the border in an effort to block the Kurds in Turkey crossing over to Syria to fight the IS forces in Rojava.
A visit by several AKP officials including the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior Affairs to the town of Suruç were not received by the locals warmly. In an outright display of rage against the role of AKP policies in the rise of IS, the locals threw stones and water bottles at AKP officials who ended up having to leave the town in a hurry, escorted by bodyguards and police.
Claims on transfer of ammunition from Turkey to IS by Turkish State Railways
Ayla Akat Ata, a deputy of the Kurdish opposition party, HDP filed a parliamentary inquiry for the PM Davutoğlu to provide information on the claims that ammunition is transferred to IS fighters by Turkish State Railways trains. The inquiry states that trains full of ammunition traverse Gaziantep – Nusaybin route, two cities in Turkey close to the Syrian border, and then cross into Syria to stop at the town of Tel Abyad where the ammunition is unloaded and then transferred by the IS fighters to the villages under IS control. The Turkish State Railways have recently announced the cancellation of Gaziantep – Nusaybin route due to maintenance work.
Statement by the Communist Party of Turkey links AKP to the rise of IS
The Communist Party of Turkey issued a statement on the release of hostages, pointing to the role of AKP in the rise of IS as a force in the region. Part of the statement read: “The hostage crisis in Mosul Consulate and all the events that followed it, have only added new pages to the list of PM Davutoğlu’s crimes, who is now issuing statements with the tone of a “victorious commander.” The conditions and forces behind the rise and the strengthening of IS are clear. The Turkish government and the consul general of Mosul who has now been exposed to be a royal servant of the Turkish government do not touch on these points at all. They don’t, but we will!
“IS is one of the armed religious groups active in Syria and Iraq. These groups have been funded and armed with all sorts of weapons by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. Davutoğlu and his government officials have not only been aware of this situation but have actually managed this funding and arming activity. This is a criminal offense.”
U.S. imperialism and AKP – a threat to all the people in the region
Led by U.S. imperialism in the ruthless drive to overthrow the government of Syria, AKP of Turkey along with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, has sponsored extremist jihadist groups including the Islamic State. Consequently, thousands of IS members are estimated to be in Turkey now, some having entered along with the million or so refugees from Syria that took shelter in Turkey and some having been recruited from the Turkish youth, mostly from the poor neighborhoods in big cities.
While Erdoğan and Davutoğlu of AKP are attempting to sell the story of a secret operation conducted by MIT to the Turkish public, it is not really clear on what conditions the hostages were released. A news site known to be closely associated with the Islamic State refuted AKP’s MIT story, claiming that the hostages were released on the condition that AKP would not take part in the alliance of the “crusaders” against IS.
Having stoked a destructive civil war in Syria that has entered its fourth year, U.S. imperialism and its regional reactionary clients including AKP are not only guilty of war crimes against the people of Syria but they are also a constant threat to the people of Turkey itself. The memories of Reyhanlı bombing in May 2013 by IS, then operating as part of Al-Qaeda, the biggest terror incident in Turkey that killed 53 and wounded over 150, are still very fresh.
Given the recent U.S. imperialist drive to form a coalition to attack IS forces in Iraq and Syria and given that AKP will inevitably be involved in the overall imperialist plans in the region, one thing is clear: U.S. imperialism and AKP will be first and foremost responsible from the consequences of any terror act in Turkey by any of the extremists groups it has supported, including IS.
AKP hands off Turkey! AKP hands off Syria! U.S. Hands off Syria!
