The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria calls upon the whole world to hold Turkey to account for smuggling ISIS members and implicit and explicit support for ISIS.

The Turkish secret service MIT has freed a Moldovan female member of ISIS and her children held in the Hol (al-Hawl) camp in Hesekê in northeast Syria and handed them over to Moldova. The "rescue operation", according to a report by the official news agency AA, apparently took place at the request of the government of the South-East European country. Meanwhile, it is unclear why Moldova turned to NATO partner Turkey to free a member of the terrorist organization ISIS from coalition custody instead of lobbying the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria for the repatriation of the woman and her four children.

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria calls upon the whole world to hold Turkey to account for smuggling ISIS members and implicit and explicit support for ISIS.

The statement, which follows Turkey's announcement it has 'rescued' foreign ISIS members from SDF detention, reads as follows:

"Since the beginning of the crisis in Syria and the emergence of ISIS and other radical organizations, Turkey has endeavored, in every possible way, to support and benefit from terrorism in Syria. This support became clear with the SDF’s campaign against ISIS in the summer of 2015, at a time when Turkey was hiding these issues and preventing their revelations. However, with this campaign, everything became clearer, and it demonstrated the extent of Turkey’s relationship with, and insistence on preventing the defeat of any extremist faction, foremost of which is ISIS.

There are thousands of evidences, which have been documented by all parties and actors in Syria as well as the confessions of those who are now in the hands of the Autonomous Administration, confirm Turkey’s support of terrorism in Syria, the movement of extremists from and into Syria, the commercial dealings between them, the reception and the treatment of ISIS’ wounded people in Turkey. Not to mention the new form of ISIS support, including its sleeper cells and the mercenaries who were in the ranks of ISIS and bringing them to the areas of Afrin, Serekaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Gire Spi (Tal Abyad) under the name of Syrian National Army in an attempt to deceive the international public.

The al-Hawl (Hol) camp, which houses thousands of ISIS women and children, was part of the continuing Turkish attempts to penetrate the camp and smuggle these women, and use them as a bargaining chip to blackmail the world. Many attempts to smuggle them were foiled. Turkey’s announcement on 17 July 2020, of its alleged rescue of a Moldovan woman with her children from the aforementioned camp is dangerous and an important evidence of Turkey’s continuing effort to revive ISIS in the region, especially in light of Turkey’s talk that these women are being forcibly detained. Turkey also describes, in an explicit manner, that these people should not be detained in these camps, and it announces publicly the need to free ISIS women. Not to mention the volume of continuous attempts to target places of detention of ISIS members and women, from targeting Ain Issa Camp to one of the detention facilities in Kobani as well as in al-Jazeera. Turkey also encourages, through its agents, ISIS prisoners to disobey prison orders and revolt in their prisons.

In addition to the situation that has emerged today, other cases show ISIS members fled and arrived in Turkey with the help of Turkish intelligence. In addition, there are confessions from a number of others who tried to escape and their destination was Turkey, as Turkish intelligence is making great efforts and providing financial support to this end.

We, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, call upon the whole world to hold Turkey responsible for smuggling and receiving ISIS members, and its explicit and implicit support for ISIS’ sleeper cells in the region. These practices are consistent with attempts to place Syria, the region, and the world under the threat of ISIS. This support also targets the efforts made by the international coalition and its partner, the SDF, to secure the world from the threat of ISIS. Therefore, everyone should work to put an end to the Turkish state’s practices, which pose a great threat to the security and safety of the region and the world.”

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