Several times this year, the U.S. State Department and Treasury Department have cited Turkey as a financial base for ISIS and al-Qaeda.
Turkey has long sponsored ISIS and other international terrorist organizations. No serious analyst disputes this.
Turkey has armed, financed, and deployed terrorists in such locations as Syria, Libya, and Azerbaijan.
On September 28, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) and Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ) quizzed President Biden’s nominee to be ambassador to Turkey, former U.S. Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ).
The SFRC —and particularly Sen. Menendez —shocked observers by failing to ask Flake even a single question about Turkey’s sponsorship of terrorism.
Since 2014, veteran State Department advisor Dr. David L. Phillips, Director of Columbia University’s Program on Peace-building and Rights, has thoroughly documentedTurkey’s backing of ISIS and other terrorist groups.
This year he wrote that if a “non-NATO country behaved like Turkey, it would warrant designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism,” like Iran and North Korea.
In 2014, Vice President Joe Biden told his Harvard University audience that Turkey and others had been giving “hundreds of millions of dollars [and] tons of weapons” to al-Qaeda, al-Nusra, and ISIS.
According to Turkey’s counterterrorism chief from 2010-2013, Ahmet S. Yayla, “Turkey was a central hub for … over 50,000 ISIS foreign fighters, and the main source of ISIS logistical materials [including] IEDs, making Turkey and ISIS practically allies.”
The United Nations, the European Union Parliament, and others have documented Turkey and Azerbaijan’s deployment of terrorists and terrorist mercenaries against the Armenian region of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabagh last year.
In a July 21 SFRC hearing, Chairman Menendez asked Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland about “Turkey facilitating the transfer of fighters from Syria to Azerbaijan” in 2020. Nuland sneered that she would discuss it only “in another setting.”
Sen. Menendez has never revealed whether he subsequently met Nuland “in another setting” and, if so, what resulted. Chairman Menendez’s lack of transparency is unacceptable.
AAHR concludes that the SFRC, Chairman Menendez, and ranking member Senator James E. Risch (R-ID) are engaged in covering up Turkey’s (and probably other countries’) terrorist activities.
The Senate, unfortunately, confirmed Mr. Flake on October 26 as ambassador to Turkey.
Turkey is, in effect, a State Sponsor of Terrorism.
For the SFRC and Chairman Menendez, therefore, to have not asked Flake even a single question about terrorism is an abdication of their duties and a betrayal of the American people, especially our courageous men and women in uniform.
Boycott Turkey says
Turkey isn’t just a Terror sponsor it’s a terrorist state itself Erdogan is isis in a suit it’s always the same old story the western leaders turning a blind eye to Turkeys crimes but it won’t last for ever Time will run out for Turkey one day I don’t understand why Russia did nothing to help Armenia and why it allowed Turkey to import Syrian jihadist the same Terrorist the Russians are fighting Russia seems to be playing very stupid dangerous games
GreekEmpress says
I agree. Erdogan is a Brooks Brother jihadi.
As far as Flake goes, the Turks can have him.
Boycott Turkey says
Flake sounds like a snowflake
gravenimage says
He’s pretty flaky in general…
roberta says
Flake is a parasite that just wont go away.
Infidel says
It’s interesting how all the ‘true conservative’ never-Trumpers are all finding out that their only hopes of continuing to remain employed is by getting co-opted by the Dems
PMK says
It’s senatorial courtesy to confirm a current or former Senator. The confirmation hearing is for show. The Senate is a club. With few exceptions, it simply goes through the motions when confirming a presidential appointee. Nothing unusual about this hearing. It’s traditional.
Spiro says
Maybe the truth is to scary for or they don’t want to know the truth
Either way their action are treasonous in my opinion
Many years ago there was a book out
None dare call it treason
john smith says
Outside of the US, NATO’S largest consignment of nuclear weapons is still deployed in Turkey.
Can the codes that arm the bombs be broken, I don’t know. But what I do know is if they can be broken, then the only way the Americans will be able to get them back, is when Erdogan decides to drop them on them. Or should I say ,TRIES to drop them on them.
mortimer says
Anyone who is not solidly grounded in the study of jihadism SHOULD NOT be appointed as Ambassador to Turkey.
mortimer says
My blood boiled when I saw ISIS and other jihadist groups in Syria holding American weapons. It is now clear that they came from Turkey and Turkey got them from Hillary.
Infidel says
This one is easy to rationalize, if not justify:
– Biden is not gonna take a strong stance against Turkey, given his stances on Iran and other jihadist entities
– Dems are not gonna oppose any Biden nominee
– Republicans would be happy to see Flake gone from the country, where he can do little damage, which is why they’re not obstructing him. (And they are right)
The bigger foreign policy question on Turkey is one for the State Department and our foreign policy elite, not for a bottom-feeder like Jeff Flake
gravenimage says
Too true, Infidel…
Grace says
Sometimes Karma is right on time. Jeff Flake and Turkey; perfect together.
gravenimage says
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Fails to Question Nominee for US Ambassador to Turkey about Terrorism
…………….
I wish I could say this surprises me.
What do we know about Senator Flake?
“Republican Senator Jeff Flake Visits Arizona Mosque”
The visit in Scottsdale was Flake’s first trip to a mosque, and he decried the anti-Muslim rhetoric seen after the San Bernardino attack…
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/republican-senator-jeff-flake-visits-arizona-mosque-n478856
How *dare* anyone say anything negative about a Muslim couple slaughtering 14 of their coworkers? Bad dhimmis! He also condemned President Trump’s very limited “Muslim ban”.
The Imam of this Moque, Yasir Ali, has also sneered at the idea that any Muslims are terrorists.
Doesn’t sound very promising that Senator Flake–who seems h=to have earned his name–is apt to recognize support of Jihad terrorism in Turkey any better than he did in Arizona.