Last week The New York Post published an op-ed by Jonathan Schanzer arguing that the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum (GCTF) “doesn’t hold its members to any standards.” Schanzer observed that a number of the countries on GCTF, including Pakistan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, “help fund or otherwise sponsor terrorism.” The main focus of Schanzer’s scrutiny was Turkey, which isn’t just a member of the forum, but a co-chair along with the United States.
In addition to providing safe haven to Saleh al-Arouri, the Hamas official in charge of West Bank terrorism and helping Iran evade billions in sanctions, Schanzer writes that Turkey has been aiding terrorist groups including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The GCTF this week discussed best practices for countering the foreign-fighter phenomenon. Yet eastern Turkey has become the primary gateway for Middle Easterners and Europeans alike flocking to join ISIS. …
Meanwhile, over the weekend, Turkey secured the release of 46 Turkish hostages from ISIS — in exchange for helping to free 50 ISIS fighters captured by another Syrian faction, Liwa al-Tawhid. In other words, Turkey negotiated with the enemy we’re now fighting.
It’s also worth noting that Turkey has been out of compliance for seven years with the Financial Action Task Force, the international body that sets the standards for combatting terrorism finance.
By partnering with Turkey in the GCTF, Schanzer observes that it indicates “a lack of American seriousness in the fight against the Islamic State and other terrorist groups.”
In Where the Shadiest Players Find a Home, published in the September 2014 issue of The Tower Magazine, Schanzer wrote that there’s little reason to think that Turkey’s behavior will change any time in the near future:
Unfortunately, it does not appear that Turkey will redress these problems any time soon. With Erdoğan’s ascent to presidency, and with his former foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, taking over as prime minister, the architects of Turkey’s dangerous foreign policies have consolidated power. This means that Turkey is more than likely to continue to drift from the Western orbit, and to resemble some of the more dangerous actors in the Middle East.
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