Read on Twitter
Journalist @ismailsaymaz has revealed information about a report issued by Police Chief Intelligence Bureau to all provincial police HQs in 2015 which states that there were 33 known possible suicide bombers at large in Turkey. I& #39;m gonna list a few issues with Saymaz& #39;s framing.
Saymaz, focuses on Yunuz Emre Ceyhan, a radicalised Turkish citizen from Ankara & who in Sept 2014 was detained when trying to cross TR-Syria border illegally. https://www.sozcu.com.tr/2020/yazarlar/ismail-saymaz/mitin-selefi-raporu-6051588/">https://www.sozcu.com.tr/2020/yaza...
Rather than question if Ceyhan was investigated in 2014 for terror links (his name appears in the list issued a year later!) Saymaz focuses on the fact that Ceyhan had a sex change in his youth.
Police intel report suggested the sex change somehow increased Ceyhan& #39;s chances of being a suicide bomber (on what grounds beyond transphobia? We& #39;ve had plenty of such bombers in the past, all were cis gender; what correlation between sex change & suicide bombing is there?!)
Regardless, it turns out Ceyhan successfully did cross the border in a later attempt (i.e. he was released from detention in Sept 2014) & died fighting for JaN in Syria but Saymaz does not say when.
The most valuable bit of Saymaz& #39;s reporting is referencing a classified MİT report issued in Sept 2015 that says since 2011, some 2,750 TR citizens had gone to Syria & Iraq to join jihadist groups, of these 457 had died in combat.
If I am not mistaken, this is the first time we actually have a figure on the number of Turkish jihadist type FTFs in Syria & Iraq from an official TR government source.
Saymaz then goes on to cite Cübbeli Ahmet Hoca and the recent discussions of the "Salafi threat" in Turkey. I really dislike Salafism; it is not indigenous to Turkey & Turkey& #39;s understanding, practices of Islam, however, I think this recent focus is a red herring. Let me explain.
There is Salafi community in Turkey but it is very small comparative to population size. We& #39;re talking less than approx 30,000. In recent months, sects (tarikats - whose membership and public acceptance vastly outstrip Salafists) have come under growing scrutiny & criticism.
I think what Cübbeli Ahmet is doing is trying to protect sects like his, by showing a "bigger, more scary threat" i.e. Salafism. This also defects from the discussions around sects as they are currently. See more in this thread: https://twitter.com/hasavrat/status/1308755499458932736">https://twitter.com/hasavrat/...
