It has emerged that there are records of telephone calls with Daesh militants by certain high-ranking soldiers assigned to border security duties in Gaziantep. It has transpired that an investigation was conducted by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office into telephone conversations that exposed the dirty relations between soldiers and Daesh members but, under a decision of “non-jurisdiction”, the file was sent to the Gaziantep Armed Brigade No 5 Military Prosecutor’s Office.
The huge scandal was brought to light in an investigation launched following an application to Ankara Chief Public Prosecution by six citizens whose loved ones had joined Daesh. In the procedures conducted by the Chief Prosecution after the application, Daesh’s activities in Ankara were scrutinized and orders obtained to intercept the communications of nineteen people believed to have brought the missing persons into contact with the organization. The file into the six people reported by their friends and relatives was joined with this file.
It was established from the work undertaken that those who wished to join Daesh received ideological training, sometimes among themselves, and sometimes through clubs, bookshops or foundations. It was ascertained that certain suspects had engaged in activities for the benefit of those trainees who wished to join Daesh such as acting as intermediary, mapping out routes, supplying cars and bringing them into contact with the other side. Apparently, those going from Ankara frequently used Elbeyli sub-province via Gaziantep and Kilis as a crossing point, and from here went to the village of Abla in Syria’s Al-Bab district.
The file is with the military prosecution Prosecutor Derda Gökmen initiated proceedings into 27 suspects, some of whom are currently in Syria. Some astonishing documents were included in the case file accepted by Ankara Serious Crime Court No 2. According to the documents, Gökmen had started an investigation “on the grounds of another offence coming to light in the course of monitoring conducted for surveillance purposes” after having examined the records of telephone conversation made between Daesh members and certain soldiers that had been obtained as a result of monitoring conducted for such purposes at the end of 2014.
Gökmen passed a decision of “non-jurisdiction” on March 5 2015 at the conclusion of the investigation conducted “into the suspects’ conversations, and relations of a criminal nature with certain soldiers” and sent the file along with the surveillance records to the military prosecution.
The Armed Brigade No 5 Military Prosecutor’s Office has now, as part of the investigation it has launched, written to the Ankara Republic Chief Prosecution and asked for “the court order for interception of communications” under which monitoring conducted for surveillance purposes was performed and copies of the CDs. We’ve put on the light. Get over here. According to information obtained by Cumhuriyet, the note “In this conversation record, the person with the alias X2 speaking to the person whose conversation was under surveillance is thought to be a serving soldier” appears at the start of a conversation record attached to the recording obtained from monitoring for surveillance purposes:
– Yes, buddy.
X2: That car is in the location I gave. We’re among the mines. We’ve put on the light and there are goods. Get over here from that side with your men.
– OK, buddy, we’re coming.
X2: Come quick.
– Buddy, will he buy the story that I/you (?) gave the car to first lieutenant Burak?
X2: Well, the one you gave is a bit lower down. Both of our cars are on the Turkish side.
– OK, buddy. Call if anything’s up.
While, another conversation has been included in the file with the note that it took place between Mustafa Demir, who is charged in the proceedings with being a Daesh administrator, and a person also thought to be a serving soldier (X2):
– Yes.
– Buddy, they’ve called er…, they’ve called the junior officer.
– OK, buddy, OK. – Bye … God knows best [Allahu A’alam].
– See you, then. Call if anything’s up. I’ll speak to the people on the other side.
– OK, buddy.
– Bye.
The thermal resort guy takes them across While, adjoining a conversation included in the file stated to have been made at 20.06 hours on November 25 2014 is the note that this is a conversation that took place between “the individual named Ali” and a serving high-ranking member of the armed forces:
– Buddy, they’ve got an arrangement with the thermal resort*. I dug up some information from the villagers. The thermal resort guy apparently takes them across for money.
ALİ: See if I don’t wring his neck. Because I took a consignment from here a week ago.
– Ali, buddy, can you do, er, with the commander here, can you get me fixed up here for this business?
ALİ: OK. If anything comes up let me know.
The newspaper reproduces another five conversations here. All appear to be of the nature of light-hearted banter between Turkish soldiers and Daesh members on the other side of the border.
