Turkish government strikes down parliamentary request to investigate ISIS activity in Turkey
"The Turkish government still refrains from taking a clear position on the Islamic State," says opposition official.
By JPOST.COM STAFFTurkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.(photo credit: REUTERS)
Turkey's ruling Islamist party, the AKP, has struck down a parliamentary motion to launch an official probe into Islamic State's activities inside Turkey, Hurriyet Daily News reported on Saturday.Nazmi Gur, a deputy of the opposition's People's Democratic Party, who initially forwarded the motion, claimed that the government's rejection of the investigation is "a sign that the Turkish government still refrains from taking a clear position against ISIL (Islamic State)."This request for an inquiry comes in light of multiple incidents that have raised suspicions regarding Turkey's relationship with the Islamic State group.On Sunday, Turkish forces carried out an operation to secure a Turkish enclave in Syria, evacuating the soldiers manning it and removing the remains of an historical Ottoman figure buried there. The mission drudged up allegations that the the soldiers, trapped in the enclave for 11 months , received food and water from the Islamic State due to Ankara's inability to provide them with rations.Earlier this month, the Today's Zaman Newspaper reported that a captured Islamic State fighter being treated in a Turkish hospital revealed he was aided by Turkish Intelligence while trying to smuggle weapons into Syria. He claimed that his accomplice had connections inside Turkish MIT who ensured that his vehicle would not be checked by security forces at the border.In 2014, a similar case surfaced which saw a Turkish magistrate in the border city of Adana removed from his post after ordering the border police to check all vehicles entering Syria for weapons.Despite the allegations and rumors, AKP officials have been defiant. A party deputy rejected the opposition's criticism, citing Turkey's official recognition of the Islamic State group as terrorists and repudiating their association with Islam.The AKP, headed by firebrand President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has had a checkered record regarding cooperation with the opposition, overruling and refusing to pass their motions even when they compliment the government's own policies.Erdogan, who was also previously the Prime Minister, often refers to a"parallel structure" inside of the government, a moniker that he uses to refer to what he believes is an anti-AKP fifth-column led by Fetullah Gulen, an Islamic scholar that was once friendly with Erdogan, but has proven to be an adversary.
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