Turkey should be designated as a “sponsor of terrorism” for supporting terrorist groups in Syria, Libya, Somalia and Kenya, according to a Sunday report by the Washington Examiner newspaper.
Turkey’s intelligence has a strong relationship with Ibrahim Sen, who was arrested in Pakistan as an al-Qaeda operative, Washington Examiner quoted Abdullah Bozkurt, the former Ankara bureau chief for Fethullah Gulen-affiliated newspaper Today’s Zaman, as saying.
“Ibrahim Sen was a liaison for Turkey’s intelligence service to groups in Syria and, more importantly, transferred $600,000 to al-Shabaab in 2012,” the report claimed.
As for Libya, the report said the Libyan authorities have repeatedly seized shipments carrying weapons and ammunition from Turkey to Islamist militias at the port of Misurata and Khoms, violating the UN weapons embargo.
To put an end for smuggling Turkish weapons to Libya, Libyan National Army (LNA)’s spokesperson Ahmed al-Mismari called upon the international community on 13 January to launch an investigation into Turkish weapon shipments seized at Libyan ports.
Although Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu paid Libya a December visit after a weapon shipment was seized, and he declared that Turkey is investigating how weapons and ammunition were loaded in shipments traveling from his country to Libya, another shipment arrived in Libya a few weeks later.
