Turkey Police Arrest Two Dozen in anti-Qaida Raids
Turkish anti-terror police on Tuesday detained 25 people in a nationwide operation against al-Qaida that targeted an Islamic charity linked to the beleaguered government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Police carried out simultaneous operations in several cities and raided the homes of five allegedly senior al-Qaida operatives, the Hurriyet newspaper reported.
It said those arrested were accused of sending fighters to Syria, raising money for Syrian rebels under the guise of seeking charitable donations, and providing arms for al-Qaida.
The Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) said its offices in the southern city of Kilis were also searched in what it branded a "smear campaign" linked to the corruption scandal embroiling the government.
The organization, the biggest in Turkey sending aid to neighboring Syria, has been accused of smuggling weapons to the rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's regime.
It said one of its staff was arrested but denied any al-Qaida links.
The IHH claimed it was a victim of the feud between Erdogan and a powerful exiled Islamic preacher at the root of the worst political crisis since Erdogan took office in 2003.
"This smear campaign is backed by people inside and outside Turkey," IHH secretary general Yasar Kutluay told Agence France Presse, in an apparent reference to the movement headed by influential cleric Fethullah Gulen who lives in the U.S. but wields considerable clout in the judiciary and police in Turkey.
'Bid to brand Turkey supporter of terrorism'
"It is not only about IHH. They want to brand Turkey as a country which supports terrorism and want it to be tried before international courts," he said.
Erdogan says the investigation is a deliberate plot to weaken his government by Gulen ahead of key local elections in March and has purged hundreds of police and prosecutors involved.
He also accused the Gulen movement of seeking to undermine the Turkish secret service known as the MIT, which he said was organizing aid to Syria.
Tuesday's raids come almost two weeks after Turkish media reported that security forces had stopped a truck loaded with weapons on the Syrian border and arrested three people including a Syrian.
The drivers claimed they were carrying relief aid on behalf of IHH but the organization denied the allegations as "slanderous".
And Erdogan intervened on Tuesday over the attempt to halt the truck, saying it was a unilateral move by a local prosecutor he accused of working against efforts by the Turkish spy agency to send humanitarian aid to Syria.
The Turkish government has repeatedly denied it is involved in sending weapons to Syrian rebels although it remains staunchly opposed to the Assad regime.
However, in December, local media -- quoting U.N. and government documents -- reported that Turkey had shipped 47 tonnes of arms to the rebels since June last year.
The IHH organized a flotilla of ships carrying aid to Gaza that was raided by Israeli commandos in 2010 in an operation that left nine activists dead and sent Israeli-Turkish relations to an all-time low.
The IHH also claimed the raid was linked to comments by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman this month describing the IHH as a threat to the interests of the Jewish state.
"Those who are uneasy about our aid work and the parallel groups acting as the pawns of Israel are carrying out an operation against Turkey," Kutluay said, apparently referring to Gulen who is believed to back rebuilding ties with Israel.
Source: Agence France Presse
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