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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'm gonna list a few issues with Saymaz'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/
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's chances of being a suicide bomber (on what grounds beyond transphobia? We'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'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'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'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
