The Turkish state is forcing Syrian refugees on buses at a gunpoint to deliver them on the border with Greece while on the other hand, is collecting money from students allegedly to "support Idlib refugees."
The Religious Education Branches affiliated to the Directorate of National Education sent a letter to many primary and secondary schools in Istanbul to collect money for Idlib refugees.
The Turkish state is using Syrian refugees - claiming a million people have reached Turkey - as bargaining chips and at the same time is transferring most families from Idlib to Afrin, Jarablus, Bab, Ezaz, Serêkaniyê and Girê Spî.
Turkey is not allowing refugees to cross the border into Turkey, while forcibly transferring refugees on the Greek border.
The Ankara regime is using refugees to raise money. This time children are the target. Each student received an envelope in a closed meetings held by the Parent-Teacher Association. In the Whatsapp group belonging to each class, a text is shared for families to see. Students who do not provide aid are often warned.
Why money is collecting and where does it go?
In the text signed by Bağcılar District Director of National Education Mustafa Yılmaz, money is asked to support the campaign to help Syrian refugees. The campaign is called "We are together with Idlib." The text states that a commission was set up at the school to raise money. There is no transparency as to how the money is used, how much it is collected and where it goes. Furthermore, it is not clear what pressure is put on children and families who are asked to 'voluntarily' contribute to the campaign.
The name Ömer Faruk Korkmaz, Member of the Board of Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) appeared in the press linked to the money collected for refugees. The IHH has close relationship with jihadists, particularly ISIS and al-Nusra, as confirmed by an articly published by French newspaper Le Monde in January 2014 in which two British citizens jihadists said that they were in contact with the IHH. "They had to take us to Syria for an ambulance, but it didn't happen."
In January, a spokesman for the Libyan National Army, Ahmed El Mismari, who was affiliated to the Caliph Khafter, who ruled in the east of Libya, said that the IHH (which he called a "cover for MIT," Turkish Secret Services) supported mercenaries in Libya.
