Turkey is a terrorist haven where al-Qaida fighters are allowed to open bank accounts
A Turkish member of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an arm of al-Qaeda in Syria, has opened a bank account in a state-owned lender despite the fact that he faces an arrest warrant in Turkey, which is binding, to freeze his assets and bank accounts.
Turkish support for terrorists
Swedish news site Nordic Monitor has published confidential financial documents revealing that Omri Jamurko, a 26-year-old HTS fighter, opened a bank account at the state-owned Halk Bank on February 21, 2020 despite the fact that Turkish authorities knew he was working for the extremist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The Turkish government designated the HTS as a terrorist group on August 31, 2018 by a presidential decree issued two days earlier as part of Turkey’s compliance with the UN Security Council Committee on confronting ISIS and the Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee.
On June 5, 2018, the UN committee updated its statements on Jabhat al-Nusra, saying: The group established HTS in January 2017 “as a means of strengthening its position in the Syrian insurgency and its objectives as an al-Qaeda branch in Syria,” and Ankara was supposed to freeze the assets of HTS members and entities in Turkey after the UN resolution became part of Turkish law by presidential decree; However, no decision has been taken to implement this decree or the decision of the United Nations Commission.
Since then, HTS members have continued to raise and transfer funds using the Turkish banking system, while the group, which is dominant in Syria’s Idlib province, has continued to circulate goods across the Turkish-Syrian border, increasing tax revenues in areas controlled by the Turkish military and its militias.
Secret dealings
According to the website, Jamurko opened a bank account two years after the imposition of sanctions on HTS, which is another proof of how al-Qaeda operates in Turkey without many obstacles. The confidential file on Jamurko revealed that a judge in Istanbul issued an arrest warrant against him in 2018 on charges of belonging to an armed group. However, there is no criminal investigation pending against him by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and there is no criminal case against him in any court. His banking activities also show that he had three accounts in another government bank, Ziraat, since 2014, but he closed two of them in March 2018. “He opened a bank account with private bank İş Bankası on 25 January 2018, followed by an account at Bank Halk in 2020.”
Police records indicate that he was identified as a member of HTS so long ago that the police asked the Financial Crimes Investigation Council (MASAK) to look into his bank accounts and assets on April 26, 2019, followed by another request on July 16, 2020. Although he was designated as a HTS terrorist, it took years before President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a government decree, on December 24, 2021, ordering the freezing of his assets.
Turkey is a haven for terrorists
The Swedish website revealed that HTS members detained in police raids in Turkey were often released, while some made sea trips between Turkey and Syria, and carried out acts on behalf of the terrorist group. HTS is still the dominant terrorist group in Idlib with the support of Turkey, with about 10,000 fighters according to the latest report issued in June by the UN Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team.
