‘ISIL’s aggression may spread to southeastern Turkey if Salafism gets foothold’

Former Diyarbakır deputy from the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Galip Ensarioğlu. (Photo: DHA)

June 29, 2015, Monday/ 17:38:20/ TODAY'S ZAMAN / ISTANBUL

The tension between the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Turkish Hezbollah in the eastern and southeastern provinces of Turkey might turn into a three-way battle involving the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), as Salafi groups begin to play an increasingly prominent role in the region, said former Diyarbakır deputy from the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Galip Ensarioğlu.

“Turkey has always been a country where Salafism remained weak. However, now more and more young people join Salafi organizations in southern Turkey while Hezbollah loses ground. We have always been afraid of the eruption of an armed conflagration between Hezbollah and the PKK. Now, the threat is getting bigger as jihadist Salafism is making efforts to expand in a move to include ISIL in the tension in the region,” Ensarioğlu said in an exclusive interview with the Aksiyon weekly.

Jihadist Salafism is widespread among the Sunnis of Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, where enmity toward Shiites was already well established. Following the eruption of a civil war after protests against the regime in Syria in 2011, another extremist group with Salafist ideology emerged: ISIL. Salafi groups were not the key players in Syria initially, but their influence deepened especially after ISIL managed to invade parts of Syria with a relatively small number of militants.

“[In the June 7 general election] Hüda-Par [the Kurdish Islamist Free Cause Party, which is affiliated with Hezbollah] lost around 9,000 votes in Diyarbakır. This loss is a clear indication of the disengagement of people from Hezbollah. This also means a clear shift towards Salafism in the region. If it continues like that, Salafi organizations like ISIL and al-Qaeda will have a chance to move their battle against the PKK to soil where Kurds predominantly live. ISIL will also organize on this soil in order to win round the militants affiliated with the PKK,” Ensarioğlu stated.

Turkish Hezbollah, a religious organization which had an armed wing in the 1990s and fought against the PKK and its extensions in the region, is one of the key socio-political actors in the city, with a grassroots organization. The recent clashes between PKK members and Turkish Hezbollah, which has no affiliation with Lebanon's Hezbollah, have again raised fears of further conflict in the region.

Ensarioğlu also stated that the PKK has lost its legitimacy, as the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), a political party affiliated with the outlawed PKK, managed to pass the election threshold by garnering around 13 percent of the popular vote in the June 7 election.

“The PKK lost it [legitimacy] as the HDP entered Parliament and [engages in] politics in legal ways. But the PKK might get involved in armed clashes with Hezbollah [and ISIL] to gain legitimacy. They [the PKK] might say: ‘Hezbollah threatens civilians and we defend our people.' Within this concept they might use this complicated situation to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the Kurdish people,” Ensarioğlu stated.

US State Department says radical groups used Turkey for transit

In its annual global terrorism report, the US State Department has defined Turkey as a country that has served as “the main transit route” for foreign terrorist fighters wishing to join extremist radical groups in Syria.

Released in Washington last week, “Country Reports on Terrorism 2014,” said: “Largely because of the ongoing conflict in Syria, Turkey has voiced increasing concern about terrorist groups near its border, including Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), al-Nusrah Front, and other al-Qa'ida (AQ)-affiliated groups. Throughout 2014, Turkey served as a source and transit country for foreign terrorist fighters wishing to join these and other groups in Syria.”

The report also included noteworthy terrorist incidents in 2014 in Turkey. “During the week of October 6, at least 40 civilians were killed during two days of protests and associated violence. According to Human Rights First, security forces killed 15 persons during clashes between various Kurdish groups, including PKK supporters and Huda-Par. On October 25, masked gunmen shot dead three Turkish soldiers in the Kurdish-majority southeast of the country. The attack was attributed to the PKK. On October 29, a Turkish military officer wearing civilian clothes died after being shot in the head by two PKK militants while walking in a bazaar,” the report stated.

The report also mentioned the appearance of Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal at a congress of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in December of last year as a move that “drew attention to the Turkish government's relations with this group, which is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States.”

Keywords: ISIL , Turkey , PKK , Galip Ensarioğlu