The Turkish state which has continued with its threats against North and East Syria for a few years and occupied Afrin in March 2018, has unified FSA and ISIS mercenaries and engaged in plans for continued bloodshed and chaos in northern Syria.

Cells are being established by FSA and Syrian ISIS members in the Turkish-occupied areas of northern Syria. These cells serve also to draw and use Syrian refugees in Turkey in return for money or persuasion.

Cuma Muhammed Toqan (Ebu Salih), who lived in Turkey for 7 years, is one of the Syrian refugees who were organized by Turkish-backed terrorists and then sent to northern Syria to carry out bomb attacks.

Captured by Internal Security Forces of North-East Syria, Cuma Muhammed Toqan spoke to ANF and told that there were quite a number of ISIS members in Turkey, that these acted with the Turkish-backed FSA terrorists like a network, established sleeper cells in Syria and planned explosions in northeastern Syria.

31-year-old Toqan comes from Til Temir district of Heseke. He is married and father of one. He travels to Turkey in 2011 and stays there till 2018, earning his life as a worker. His life changes with his ISIS member nephew Ahmet Salih Toqan’s arrival in Turkey.

With his nephew and 2 members of the Turkish-backed ‘Euphrates Shield Forces’, Toqan joins a ‘sleeper cell’ set up to carry out sabotage attacks against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Democratic Autonomous Administration of NE Syria. His cell sends him to Syria to get in touch with other members of the cell on the organization of bomb attacks. On his third day in Syria, on 1 June 2018, he gets arrested by the Internal Security Forces of North and East Syria in Abu Rasen area of Heseke.

Before his leave from Syria, Cuma Muhammed Toqan and his nephew Ahmed Salih Toqan join the Ahrar al-Sham gangs in Deir ez-Zor in 2011. After 3,5 months, in October, Cuma leaves the group and travels to Turkey. He works as a carrier at wholesale market halls and an agricultural worker in cities where he stayed, like Adana, Konya, Kırşehir, Mardin Kızıltepe and Urfa.

Cuma tells that his nephew Ahmed Toqan joined ISIS after Ahrar al-Sham. “While he was with ISIS, he had a traffic accident in Deir ez-Zor in 2017 and travelled to Turkey for treatment with his family in 2018. They came to Urfa. My elder brother, Ahmed’s father, was working at a farm in the Harran district. My elder brother’s boss knew people with higher authorities in the government. By means of them, Ahmed was treated in a public hospital in Urfa. When I left Turkey, he was still getting his medicine from that hospital.”

Cuma Toqan says that he was organized by his ISIS member nephew and his friends from FSA to join the sleeper cell structure of the terrorist group. “My nephew, whose relationship with FSA members had continued for some time, wanted me to join the cell,” he says.

Toqan states that these cells are affiliated with the FSA and backed by the Turkish army. When asked which FSA group these adhere to, he answers “Euphrates Shield”. He notes that these cells also include ISIS members, adding; “There were some 30-40 ISIS members with them. They were acting together like a network.”

Cuma tells that he couldn’t decide whether to join these cells or not until he was eventually persuaded by some people who were talking about jihad and saying that America had entered and seized their lands.

After Cuma’s approval to join the cell, he is told to take mine to northeast Syria and hand it over to his fellows there. Then he crosses into NE Syria via Dirbesiye city on Turkey border line, and arrives in the Suqiriya village in Zirgan hamlet.

He tells his journey to Syria as follows; “They gave me 300 dollars. 200 was for me and 100 to buy a cell phone to talk to the men there. They gave me a mine. Abdülmelle told me the place of the mines buried in Syria. When I asked who I would get in touch with there, they didn’t give a clear answer but said ‘they don’t know you either as we didn’t tell them your name’. At night they brought me to the border area and told me to cross over. I did that and then went up to my brother working at a chicken farm in the Suqiriya village. The same night, we went and removed the mines they had told me about. The next day, they called me and spoke of some people charged with receiving the mines. They said me ‘Our man cannot come to you. He has been stopped at a checkpoint. You must go to him instead’. I answered them that I was new there, had no ID card and wouldn’t be able to make it. Then we decided to send my brother. So my brother hit the road but he got arrested by the Asayish (Public Security) and told them that I had sent him. Afterwards, on June 1st or 2nd, they came and captured me at home.”

Cuma Toqan, who lived in Turkey as a refugee for 7 years, tells that there are quite a number of ISIS members in many cities of Turkey including Adana and Urfa, and Mardin’s Kızıltepe district.

“Ahmet Toqan and others were telling about these people. I also know two other people from ISIS. We Syrians don’t know our ID names. We call each other like ‘Salih’s father’ or ‘Ahmet’s father’. One of them was from Raqqa and the other from Deir ez-Zor. The one from Raqqa was living in Adana.”

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