About Us

IMRA
IMRA
IMRA

 

Subscribe

Search


...................................................................................................................................................


Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Egypt Accuses Turkey of Subversion (captured Turkish intelligence officers in Sinai)

Egypt Accuses Turkey of Subversion
Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah
Jerusalem Issue Briefs Vol. 15, No. 22 July 14, 2015
Institute for Contemporary Affairs
Founded jointly with the Wechsler Family Foundation
http://jcpa.org/article/egypt-accuses-turkey-of-subversion/

-The Egyptian military revealed on July 8, 2015, that it had captured
Turkish intelligence officers who were actively involved in the guerrilla
war waged by the Islamic State in Sinai and inside Egypt itself against the
Sisi regime.
-
The Turkish National Intelligence Organization (NIO) operatives named
included Col. Ismail Aly Bal (described as a coordinator of battlefield
operations), Diaa al-Din Mehmet Gado, Bakoush al-Husseyni Youzmi and
Abdallah al-Turki.

-On July 12, the Egyptian military spokesman announced the uncovering of a
“terrorist cell” whose instructions were given by the Muslim Brotherhood
headquartered in Turkey and whose mission was to destabilize Egypt.

-If the facts revealed by the Egyptian military are correct, this would
dramatically confirm the links between the Turkish regime and the Islamic
State militants, as well as with other jihadist groups fighting in Syria and
Iraq.

-Israeli military intelligence said that Turkey allowed the establishment of
at least three training camps for jihadists on its territory bordering Syria
and Iraq under the supervision and guidance of Turkish intelligence.

-Turkey and Egypt have been at loggerheads since President Mohammed Morsi of
the Muslim Brotherhood was ousted by Field Marshall Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in
what Turkey considered a “coup d’tat.” Part of the Muslim Brotherhood
leadership found refuge in Turkey.

A further escalation occurred in the already over-strained relations between
Turkey and Egypt when the Egyptian military revealed on July 8, 2015, that
it had captured Turkish intelligence officers who were actively involved in
the guerrilla war waged by the Islamic State in Sinai and inside Egypt
itself against the Sisi regime.

The Egyptian website Egypt Daily News1 provided the names of Ismail Aly Bal
(described as a colonel in the Turkish National Intelligence Organization
(NIO) and coordinator of battlefield operations), Diaa al-Din Mehmet Gado,
Bakoush al-Husseyni Youzmi and Abdallah al-Turki — also NIO operatives —
without any further comment by the Egyptian military on the Turkish role.

The only comment in the statement said that the names published leave no
doubt of foreign involvement in the latest attacks in Sinai against the
Egyptian Armed Forces. The statement also mentioned the fact that Kornet
anti-tank missiles fired during the confrontations against the Egyptian army
originated from Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, “which leaves now no doubt again of
the countries and terrorist groups involved in the fighting against Egypt.”2
However, the statement stopped short of pointing a finger at Turkey,
leaving, so it seems, the interpretation of the Turkish involvement to the
reader.

Adding fuel to the flames, on July 12, the Egyptian military spokesman
announced the uncovering of a “terrorist cell” whose instructions were given
by the Muslim Brotherhood headquartered in Turkey and whose mission was to
destabilize Egypt.3

Assuming the facts revealed by the Egyptian military are correct, this would
dramatically confirm the often-denied fact by Turkish officials of the
existing links between the Turkish regime and the Islamic State militants,
as well as with other jihadist groups fighting in Syria and Iraq. Turkey has
been accused of assisting the jihadists by facilitating fighters’ border
crossings to Syria and Iraq. Turkey has been tolerating jihadists’ presence
in Antakya wearing garments of the Islamic State, while some travelers to
Istanbul reported seeing artifacts looted by the Islamic State on sale
there.

Israel’s military intelligence chief claimed that Turkey allowed, under the
supervision and guidance of Turkish intelligence, the establishment of at
least three training camps for the jihadists on its territory bordering
Syria and Iraq; some sources indicated that Turkey had adopted a jihadist
organization and trained it on an exclusive basis in order to fight the
Assad regime. The Kurds have lately accused the Turks of letting Islamic
State fighters penetrate the Kobani defenses in northern Syria from the rear
by letting the jihadists cross the border from Turkey and attack the Kurds
from behind.4

However, unlike the rumors about Turkey’s role in Syria and Iraq, the case
in Egypt is different: Turkey and Egypt have been at loggerheads since
President Mohammed Morsi, the faithful offspring of the Muslim Brotherhood,
was ousted by Field Marshall Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Turkey, which had
applauded the ascent of the Muslim Brotherhood to power, considered Sisi’s
move against Morsi as a “coup d’état” and qualified his regime as
illegitimate.

Egyptian media have been adamantly critical of Turkey’s diplomatic efforts
against Egypt, pointing to the fact that part of the Muslim Brotherhood
leadership found refuge in Turkey, from where it held hostile agendas meant
to destabilize the Sisi regime.5

Since then, the two states have been waging a diplomatic war against each
other, trading insults while drastically downgrading their diplomatic
representations with the withdrawal/expulsion on November 23, 2013 of their
respective ambassadors. Turkey consistently tried to isolate Sisi and his
government from the international community using every forum possible,
according to the Middle East Eye.6 In August 2013 Turkey asked the UN
Security Council to impose sanctions on Egypt. Pope Francis had to listen to
a lengthy lecture given to him by Erdogan telling him he should not have
received Sisi because it boosted the Egyptian leader’s international
legitimacy.

Erdogan went as far as claiming in August 2013 that he had evidence proving
Israel’s involvement in the removal of President Morsi from power.7 In
February 2015, following the Giza Criminal Court’s sentencing of 183
defendants “to death on charges related to the deadly violence which broke
out in the town of Kerdasa in August 2013,”8 Egypt submitted an official
complaint to the Turkish Foreign Ministry accusing Turkey of facilitating
the airing of “channels inciting terror.”9

Bearing this in mind, and assuming that the facts reported by the military
spokesman are correct, this could mean the two countries have reached an
unprecedented degree of hostility. This would be the first time Turkey would
have ever engaged actively in efforts to destabilize and even topple the
Sisi regime, going beyond the criticism of the Egyptian regime as unlawful
and Turkey’s Erdogan denouncing Sisi as an “illegitimate tyrant.”

What are the implications of such a new reality?

a. Diminishing Turkey’s role in the Middle East: Since the ousting of
President Morsi, the Middle East Eye points out, Turkey has been isolated
from other Arab leaders while “diplomatic exchanges virtually dried up in
2014, suggesting that Turkey, instead of fulfilling its ambition to be a
leader of the Arab world,” is left with almost no contacts, “particularly
[with] the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia.”10

b. The crisis in Turkish-Egyptian relations has had serious costs in the
increased cooperation between Egypt and the Greek Cypriot government in
Cyprus“over prospecting for oil and natural gas in the seabed of the eastern
Mediterranean and setting up new transit routes and pipelines.”11

c. Being involved in subversive activities in Egypt while being accused as a
sponsor and active assistant of the Islamic State and other jihadist
organizations could have dire implications for Turkey’s relations with the
U.S. administration and in the U.S. Congress. Even if President Sisi’s
regime is not exactly what the U.S. administration would have wanted to see
in Egypt, still, Sisi cannot to be compared in any way to the Assad regime
in Syria, and no justification exists to accept Turkish- IS cooperation in
waging terrorist acts against civilian and military targets in Sinai and
inside Egypt.

* * *

Notes

1
http://www.egyptdailynews.com/news%20edn%208july%20Egypt%20captured%20foreigners.htm

2
http://www.egyptdailynews.com/news%20edn%208july%20Egypt%20captured%20foreigners.htm

3
http://www.aljazeera.net/news/arabic/2015/7/11/مصر-تعلن-اعتقال-خلية-والمتهمون-مختفون-
قسريا

4
http://www.kurdishquestion.com/index.php/kurdistan/west-kurdistan/turkey-is-fond-of-the-black-flag/998-turkey-is-fond-of-the-black-flag.html;

Personal testimony: “…from experience of crossing the Iraq Turkish border
thrice, that if you are a jihadi, Turkey does not care and keeps the door
open for you. They have two guards playing candy crush never looking at the
metal detector and passport agents who need not see your face when you
enter. Everyone smuggles. They love IS and aid them however possible…”

…According to Israel’s military intelligence chief in January 2014,
al-Qa`ida-linked groups allegedly have at least three bases in Turkey. A
report in al-Monitor suggested that prior to 2013 fighters were thought to
stay at specific hotels, such as the Ottoman and Narin hotels in the Turkish
city of Antakya. In July 2012, a six-minute video titled Turkish Mujahidin
Who Are Conducting Jihad in Syria, released by a Syrian opposition
organization, showed a group of fighters apparently located in Syria
speaking in Turkish and calling for Muslims to fight Syrian government
forces.
https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/a-deeper-look-at-syria-related-jihadist-activity-in-turkey

5
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/11/turkey-egypt-relations.html

6 David Barchard, Middle East Eye,
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/there-thaw-turkish-egyptian-relations-39146413

7
http://www.timesofisrael.com/erdogan-accuses-israel-of-engineering-egyptian-coup/

8 Ibid.

9
http://www.madamasr.com/news/egypt-accuses-turkey-allowing-tv-channels-incite-terrorism

10
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/there-thaw-turkish-egyptian-relations-39146413

11 Ibid.
About Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah

Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah, a special analyst for the Middle East at the
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, was formerly Foreign Policy Advisor to
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Deputy Head for Assessment of Israeli
Military Intelligence.

Search For An Article

....................................................................................................

Contact Us

POB 982 Kfar Sava
Tel 972-9-7604719
Fax 972-3-7255730
email:imra@netvision.net.il IMRA is now also on Twitter
http://twitter.com/IMRA_UPDATES

image004.jpg (8687 bytes)