Swedish website : Turkish association raises funds for al-Qaeda, ISIS

A Turkish association loyal to al-Qaeda is covering up charity work to raise funds for terrorist groups in Syria, Africa and Asia.

A report by the Swedish website “Nordic Monitor” revealed that the Ihsan Education, Culture and Relief Society sent armed men and supplies to al-Qaeda and ISIS in Africa and Asia and operated in districts near the Turkish-Syrian border, under the eyes of the Erdogan government, which has turned a blind eye to them.

According to the report, the association is run by a senior Turkish al-Qaeda commander known as Aytaj Bollat, who fought in Afghanistan alongside Osama bin Laden after September 11.

The leader was indicted and imprisoned in Turkey after his return a year later, but was able to escape jail thanks to an amnesty bill passed in parliament when Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party came to power in the November 2002 elections.

Bollat and his associates found a new battleground in Iraq after the US occupation, and later turned their attention to Syria, when the civil war began in 2011, according to the Nordic Monitor.

The report indicated that Erdogan’s government had recruited all kinds of extremists to fuel the war in Syria with the aim of toppling the regime of Bashar Al Assad and replacing it with an Islamist government that shares an ideology similar to Erdogan’s.

“Under political cover, Bollat and other terrorists escaped from the law arm in Turkey and were released after brief arrests,” the report said.

Al-Ihsan has branches in different Turkish provinces despite being designated as a terrorist group and its members and affiliated organizations being included in criminal investigations of al-Qaeda and ISIS in Turkey.

It is also active in a number of countries in Africa and South-East Asia.

“In many areas, Al-Ihsan is working with a Turkish group called the Foundation for Human Rights, Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, which works closely with Turkey’s intelligence agency, to empower terrorist groups.”

Russia has accused it at the UN Security Council of funneling arms to extremist groups in Syria.

The Nordic Monitor unveiled pictures of Al-Ihsan operatives using a logistics center for the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief in Gaziantep Province. Some of the signs carried slogans of the Human Rights Foundation and Al-Ihsan Foundation for Fundraising and Aid.

A report by the Stockholm Institute for Freedom in Sweden accused al-Ihsan Education, Culture and Relief of recruiting young people to work for ISIS and al-Qaeda, while 20 other associations with strong ties to the group were spotted engaged in recruitment activities under the guise of charitable work.

The report concluded that the organization has close ties to the Erdogan government, providing a fertile environment for them to obtain weapons and money to bolster extremists around the world.