In Where the Shadiest Players Find a Home, published in the September 2014 issue of The Tower Magazine, Jonathan Schanzer outlines several of the dubious ties Turkey has established under the leadership (first as prime minister, now as president) of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Schanzer observes that “Turkey’s support for Hamas remains strong,” and the country “engaged in 2012 and 2013 in a sanctions-busting scheme with Iran.” Furthermore, Schanzer notes that Turkey has protected Saudi businessman and suspected al-Qaeda financier Yasin al-Qadi, and enabled the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which “can be linked to the dangerous and permissive border policies Turkey has employed over the past two years.” Despite these activities, Turkey remains a member of NATO.
In his conclusion, Schanzer describes how Erdogan’s tolerance for dubious actors endangered Turkey’s international standing:
Turkey has very clearly become a safe haven for illicit actors to conduct their business. And its laws for deterring such activity are woefully insufficient. This was made abundantly clear in February 2013, when Ankara was nearly blacklisted by the international body dedicated to combatting terrorism finance, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Ankara was first notified of its deficiencies in 2007, when a FATF team alerted the Turks that, after a “mutual evaluation,” it had not adequately criminalized terrorism finance in the country. Nor had Turkey done enough to put in place infrastructure that could help identify and freeze terrorist assets. The expectation was that Turkey would move quickly to redress the situation. However, Turkey did little for five years. This ultimately led the FATF to issue a blacklist warning on October 19, 2012. Such a listing would have landed Turkey on a rogues list with North Korea and Iran, thereby significantly weakening its financial standing worldwide.
Turkey passed the necessary law to prevent the blacklisting, but there were enough holes in the law to render Turkey a country that has “not made sufficient progress in addressing the deficiencies.”
This week, Turkey’s terror ties are once again in the news.
Surprise! RT @nytimesworld: Turkish President Hints That Prisoner Exchange Won Release of Hostages Held by ISIS http://t.co/53UlXmZq4c
— Jonathan Schanzer (@JSchanzer) September 23, 2014
[Photo: Thierry Ehrmann / Flickr ]