Savaş Yıldız, who was captured by the YPG during the ISIS attack on Girê Spi (Tel Abyad), had contributed to the exposure of the relations between ISIS and the AKP, Erdoğan and Turkey through his confessions. After Yıldız’s confessions, Turkey had launched operations in order to capture the gangs whose identities were exposed, and these operations aimed to replace the exposed gangs.

Yıldız spoke to ANF again and made even more important and striking confessions.This time, Yıldız spoke about the goals of the attacks on Girê Spi, the importance of Antep for ISIS, the special units in ISIS that work on Turkey, the routes the gangs used, the importance of Hacı Bayuncuk also known as Abu Hanzala, and the ISIS plans to punish and kill the Dam Director in Kalmış who is thought to be a member of the Gülen movement. Yıldız had participated in the Girê Spi attack, and surrendered to YPG forces when he was left stranded under a collapsed building.

We hereby publish the second part of Yıldız’s most recent confessions.

THE IMPORTANCE OF ANTEP

Why is Antep important for ISIS?

I believe the main reason is the roads. And then there was the Cemaat. ISIS organisation is present in Istanbul, Konya, Ankara and all Kurdish cities. But Antep was chosen as the central base for the effective use of the border and to have all routes pass from a common point. For example, there are many Kurdish people and PKK supporters in Urfa, so it couldn’t be a central base. The soundest road and center would be Antep. When you cross the border from Antep, you can cross directly into ISIS territory. Those we call “Muhacirin” cross over to Turkey. They come from all over the world. Fighters from Turkey itself alsocome. These stay in Antep for a while before they cross the border. If their phones aren’t tapped, if they don’t raise suspicion, which is unlikely, let’s say the police might not see them. They may be able to not draw attention in general in Turkey. But when they come to Antep, the area is tighter. People rushing from all over the world pass from a narrow passage here. They cross from the peripheral districts and villages in Antep. It’s impossible for the security forces to not see them, not notice them. For instance, when we first crossed, the spot was like a street. The barbed wire was brought down to the ground, the passage was like a dirt path. There were no guards in the posts close to the passage. There were people coming and going as we passed. I mean, there were groups of 20-30 people. And there is this, we reached ISIS via other groups when we crossed from other regions. But when we crossed from Antep, we reached ISIS directly. This is the same for our fighters. It was in a way our territory.

What I mean to say is, ISIS is organised there. Because, we crossed from Antep when we came as a family from Adana.

We had a couple of passage points. But they were all around Antep and Kilis. One of these was the Rai side. We passed via Rai and Çobanbey. And we used the Elbeyli side. One of the most frequently used spots was Karkamış. It’s close to Jarablus. These were passage ways always open for us.

“I WAS A CAPTIVE BUT THEY GAVE MY NAME IN THE TAKSIM ATTACK”

We had one suicide bomber in our group. His name was Hubeyb. He is from Urfa, but he is in the Antep group.

When the suicide bomber exploded in Taksim, they gave my name although I was a captive when the suicide bomber exploded in Taksim. The people in Kobanê allowed me to talk to my family back then. I am certain the MİT heard I was captive. 3 days after I spoke with my family, there were news stories released that I was that suicide bomber.

After the bombings of [HDP’s] provincial buildings in Adana and Mersin, I asked for an ID from my Emir, Abu Mushap. I said, you are planning an action, an effort regarding Turkey. Then you should arrange an ID card for me. Abu Mushap said, it doesn’t matter, you wait, you be patient and we will handle it. 10-15 days after my request Abu Mushap took me to Raqqa and took my photographs. One month later Abu Mushap was killed close to Girê Spî. Abu Bekir and Abu Ramazan from my security group were with him. All three of them were shot. My ID issue was abandoned as Abu Mushap died. I didn’t receive the ID afterwards.

After the explosion in Ankara, I heard security forces investigated the matter. They figured out the person who carried out that attack entered Antep. One man was caught. They obtained addresses from that man. They raided a warehouse after getting those addresses. They seized an ID with my photo, under the pseudonym Hamza Tombak. They also seized IDs for a woman and another man. Then news stories broke out saying these are the suicide bombers, they were going to carry out an attack in Turkey. My sister wrote to my wife in Raqqa and asked about me. My wife told me when I went home on leave. And there was the matter of the leave. When I went home on leave my wife told me, and I wrote to my sister to say I was home. I hadn’t spoken out loud until that time, so as not to have my voice on record. I said out loud that I was in Syria, they shouldn’t worry to reassure my family. I made my son talk as well so they would believe me.

WHY IS TURKEY SUPPORTING ISIS?

Why does ISIS attack Kurds and Kurdish regions?

There is an agreement between Turkey and ISIS. Maybe it’s not official, or if it is, it hasn’t been announced yet. It is known that Turkey openly supports FSA and other manufactured groups against Kurds. It is known that the FSA have camps in Turkey and their official representatives are all based in Turkey. It is known that they have camps in Hatay and some places in Middle Anatolia.

Turkey supports ISIS because it poses a threat to Kurds and they can use it against them. For example, when Mosul was first captured, around 50 people were held captive in the Turkish consulate. They opened all roads for us because our guys had the captives. They gave us all kinds of freedom of movement. Those captives were exchanged with Turkey releasing 100 of our friends.

The Turkish state and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan supports us solely because they are against Kurds. It’s not because he’s affectionate towards us or anything. Because he has no relation to Islam. He wouldn’t support us for a day if we didn’t fight against the Kurds. It’s true he hasn’t called us terrorists very openly. But we openly call him an “infidel”.

The Turkish regime, the US, the Iraqi regime are not important for us, but the Syrian regime is. Because we see Syria as the center for the Islamic State that will be founded. We haven’t waged a serious war against the Syrian regime yet. We just attacked some military bases and headquarters when we needed weapons or ammunition, and that was it.

ABU HANZALA

What is the relationship between Abu Hanzala, a.k.a. Hacı Bayuncuk and ISIS?

I know Abu Hanzala well. I have never met him in person. But we used to listen to his voice recordings and videos on the internet all the time. We read his books all the time. His books talk about the ayet [verses], the hadith [words of the prophet] and the aqidah [the dogma]. They show the path of Islam. And says that that path is a path of jihad. We learn from his books that there is a system of infidelity, which is sin, in Turkey. We took off learning these from that book. It was our teaching book. As he writes about the verses and the hadith, there needs to be a war in Turkey. He was caught in Turkey twice, they released him a couple of months later each time. Abu Hanzala was caught almost two years ago for the first time, when the Caliphate had just been declared by ISIS. He praised ISIS and the declared caliphate in a speech. He was caught for that. He was released after 5 or 6 months. When he was inside, an article contrary to the aqidah of ISIS in his journal, Tawhid. We don’t know if he wrote it under police pressure, or he really meant it. The Cemaat was divided in two after that speech of Abu Hamzala. Some of these came to the war, some didn’t. They were left free to choose either. Then he was released. Abu Hanzala’s aqidah is strong. Those who read his writings come to the jihad.