Is Turkey a new haven for former fighters of the Islamic State? In Ankara, Istanbul or Kirsehir, the country’s main cities, hundreds of veterans of the Daesh or former Free Syrian Army (FSA), which became the Syrian National Army (SNA), whose ranks are filled with jihadists and which is notoriously under Turkish control, have been living for several years. However, according to the Journal du dimanche (JDD), several hundred Yazidi slaves, a religious minority particularly persecuted by the EI, are still in the hands of their retired captors.”After the Daech was weakened, many of their fighters went to Turkey with their families to be safe,” explains Abdallah Shrem, 46, who says that as a smuggler on the Syrian-Turkish border he rescued nearly 400 Yazidi hostages. The man estimates that between 400 and 450 more Yazidi slaves are still being held in Turkey today. And freeing them is complicated: If they are held by ordinary fighters who are quite remote and live alone, the hostages – often children – can still be rescued.
In February this year, police in Ankara freed a Yazidi girl from the possession of an Iraqi, a former member of the Daech, who had tried to sell the child over the internet. This is the kind of operation the Turkish government likes to talk about… to better hide the hidden side of the iceberg. Most of the Yazidi slaves still in Turkey are held by former Islamic State fighters who have joined the ANS, which is said to be completely subservient to Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s central power. A fact that Abdallah confirms:”Some members of the Daech have joined the NSA while keeping their hostages, and when the captives are in the hands of the NSA, it is more difficult to negotiate their release because it is backed by Turkey. An Ottoman grace that testifies to the fact that there are still traces of the friendly feelings Ankara showed towards the EI until 2015 – until that date, the GE reminds us, it was common knowledge that Turkey opened its borders to any would-be jihadist who wanted to join the caliphate that disappeared in 2019. A geopolitical stance that has changed since the first EI attacks in Turkey in 2016, but of which certain ties still persist.