Turkey suffered huge blowback for Daesh support: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Dmitry Babich, a radio host of Voice of Russia in Moscow, about leaked phone recordings allegedly showing that the Turkish government has permitted over a thousand members of the Daesh terrorist group to cross its borders with Syria.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: First off I would like to get your thoughts on these leaked documents showing that Daesh terrorists have regularly been crossing over Turkey’s border into Syria right under the eyes of Turkish security forces?

Babich: Well I think that the very fact that Turkey is connected to Daesh activities in Syria, this is nothing new. I think very few people doubted it because how could Daesh survive economically, where could they sell their oil that they illegally extract in northern Iraq? It is quite clear that the border between Turkey and the areas controlled by Daesh, that border has been porous for years. Actually even the Western media wrote that there are several hundred miles of the border obviously not controlled by the Turkish security forces or simply open for Daesh operatives. So these documents just prove something that unbiased observers have noticed long ago.

Press TV: There has been a lot of talk of blowback for Turkey, the lacks border controls along Turkey’s border with Syria could ultimately lead in events coming back to haunt Ankara, don’t you think?

Babich: Well that is true because if we look at the consequences for Turkey of getting involved in Syrian affairs, let me remind you that Mr. Erdogan officially had been a friend of President Assad until the events in Syria started to turn in a very violent and bloody way in 2011, so Mr. Erdogan decided to support the insurgents in Syria and that has already led to a number of very bad consequences for Turkey. Every day we have news from Turkey about the terrorist acts committed by all kinds of terrorists including Daesh operatives.

Turkey has ceased to be a democracy, it is now basically a very authoritarian country and the whole world knows that. Relations with Russia have been spoiled by downing the Russian plane that helped the legal Syrian government. So the blowback for Turkey has been enormous and a lot of people in Turkey are not happy about that. This is why these documents were leaked not by Russians or Syrians. They were leaked by an opposition Turkish parliamentarian who represents the Republican People’s Party, the party founded by the father of the modern Turkish state, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

So I think it is becoming obvious now that because of Turkey’s involvement in Syria, the democratic foundations which were created for Turkey by Ataturk in the 19th century, these foundations are under threat now and Turkey stops to be an attractive model for other Muslim countries in the Middle East.  

Press TV: Well these documents obviously address some alarming revelations revealing terrorist contacts in Turkey often helped release those terrorists detained by border police, they say that Daesh is smuggling its members into Turkey for medical treatment. At some point do you think Turkey will have to officially answer to all these accusations?  

Babich: Well if Turkey had been a democracy and if these events had been happening in the 90s or in the 80s ... there would official statements explaining what is going on. Right now Turkey is an authoritarian state where journalists are being silenced, you know all the stories about the problems that journalists have with Mr. Erdogan.

So right now I think we will have just statements from Mr. Erdogan dismissing all kinds of information about Turkey’s connection to Daesh. He will be dismissing them as lies, as insults to the Turkish nation and that will be, I think, the maximum that we can get from the Turkish government. This is a very, very absurd turn of events.

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