Erdogan’s jihadist link exposer killed in Libya

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Christine Douglass-Williams

Turkey’s link to the worst jihad groups, including the Islamic State, is documented; in late March, MEMRI reported that a Turkish website which promotes the material of the Islamic State included an article called “Kill The Idolaters Wherever You Find Them.” Islamic State networks have also been reported to be operational inside Turkey.

Classified documents obtained by the Nordic Monitor back in January also state that an al-Qaeda group in Libya had close ties to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and to other jihadists inside Libya.

And only days ago, another Nordic Monitor article reported:

A Turkish intelligence officer and retired colonel who had extensive knowledge about links between the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and radical jihadist groups was most likely sent to certain death in Libya in order to eliminate a key witness to the crimes of the Islamist government in Turkey.

Meanwhile, Erdogan wants deceive the world into thinking that Turkey is against the most violent jihadist groups, not allying with them.

It is increasingly obvious that reality is otherwise. Col. Okan Altınay “had worked for the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff for years,” but the General Staff was “uneasy” with the Turkish National Intelligence Organization’s (MIT) “close links to jihadist groups including al-Qaeda affiliates.” He “knew a lot of secrets” and “could very well blow the whistle on the Erdoğan government in the end.” So now Altinay has been “mysteriously killed” in Libya, likely to cover up what is already widely known already about Turkey’s collaboration with jihadists.

According to a military source:

We don’t know the exact circumstances of how he got killed, but I suspect he was executed to shut him up in the event the crimes of the Erdoğan government and MIT are exposed in the future.

Erdogan has also been interfering in Greece by aiding and arming illegal migrants. At the same time, he has been meddling in Yemen, where he has been reportedly teaming up with the Muslim Brotherhood via the the Islah (Reform) party, which “is instrumental in giving Turkish institutions and the Turkish government, all masquerading as charity organisations, access to Yemeni cities.” Turkey should have long been kicked out of NATO as it descends further into Islamization and thuggery.

“Turkish intelligence officer, familiar with Erdoğan’s links to jihadists, mysteriously killed in Libya,” by Abdullah Bozkurt, Nordic Monitor, April 9, 2020:

A Turkish intelligence officer and retired colonel who had extensive knowledge about links between the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and radical jihadist groups was most likely sent to certain death in Libya in order to eliminate a key witness to the crimes of the Islamist government in Turkey, sources have claimed.

According to the three sources who have access to military intelligence, retired Col. Okan Altınay, who was reportedly killed during shelling of the Port of Tripoli, is believed to have been deliberately set up for assassination by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT). Altınay had significant differences with a major faction within the intelligence agency that was working with radical jihadist groups in Syria, and he reported those clandestine MIT activities to the General Staff command along with his objections.

Col. Altınay had worked for the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff for years and attended secret meetings of the Syrian opposition and radical groups with Turkish officials. The General Staff, uneasy with MIT’s close links to jihadist groups including al-Qaeda affiliates, sent him to these meetings in Ankara and Istanbul to monitor and record what was going on. “He knew a lot of secrets and could very well blow the whistle on the Erdoğan government in the end,” one source told Nordic Monitor.

Another source said Col. Altınay had frequently clashed with Kemal Eskintan, a 55-year-old former soldier who is now the head of the special operations department at MIT, but was often overruled because of Eskintan’s backing by MIT Undersecretary Hakan Fidan and President Erdoğan, both of whom used Eskintan and his rogue team of intelligence officers to run secret operations to arm al-Qaeda groups in Syria.

“’These men are truly traitors to the nation, they don’t act like the intelligence service of Turkey but rather an organized crime syndicate that helps radical elements in Syria,’ Altınay told me,” a third source told Nordic Monitor, speaking anonymously. “He had just come back from attending meetings between MIT officials and radical groups when he said this,” the same source added. The secret meeting, held with representatives of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), negotiated the terms of access to the tomb of Süleyman Şah — the grandfather of Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire.

The tomb, which was located in Syrian territory 30 kilometers from the Turkish border, was being guarded by some 40 Turkish troops, and the Turkish military could not send replacements or logistical supplies for months in 2014 because ISIS militants had surrounded the tomb. The soldiers were trapped near the tomb, and the change of guard that usually takes place every two or three months did not occur.

Turkish military sources describe Col. Altınay as a successful military man who learned Arabic in Syria and later served in Jordan as deputy military attaché between 2010-2012. After returning to Turkey, he had served on the Middle East desk at General Staff headquarters for three years. Altınay retired from the military in 2015 but was transferred by the government to a position at MIT on the advice of the General Staff so that the Turkish military could continue to keep tabs on MIT operations, according to the accounts provided by two of the sources. When Eskintan engaged in empowering jihadists on Libyan soil under an order from the Erdoğan government, Altınay was also assigned to Libya. “We don’t know the exact circumstances of how he got killed, but I suspect he was executed to shut him up in the event the crimes of the Erdoğan government and MIT are exposed in the future,” one source explained.

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