Is Turkey the support behind ISIS? A documentary released by RT lays out evidence that would lead to that conclusion... one we first exposed here, here, and here... and is interestingly timed given Europe's potential desire to regain some leverage over Erdogan.
The documentary takes place just days after the YPG took back the town of Shaddadi (a former ISIS stronghold), and what is revealed will most certainly go under reported, but is important nonetheless. The documentary points out that the connection between Turkey and ISIS is strong. Killed ISIS fighters left behind passports indicating that the fighters all came through Turkey, and by their own admission, interviewed ISIS fighters admit to coming through Turkey with no issue at all. The locals who were working under ISIS say that oil was refined and sold to Turkey in return for money and weapons, and YPG fighters who fight against ISIS find that much of the ISIS supplies come from Turkey.
Here are some key elements of the documentary:
Captured ISIS fighters admit that coming through Turkey was easy. The fighters believe this to be the case due to the fact that it has a common enemy with ISIS, the YPG (People's Protection Unit). The YPG is yet another rebel group fighting in the Syrian civil war, and Turkey views the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who call for an independent Kurdish state within Turkey. The fighter alleges that Turkey's president Recep Erdogan wants ISIS to control Syria in order to grow the oil trade.
"The prophet told us to build a caliphate. I spoke with my friend about it, they told me to go to Istanbul. I went to Turkey, I got into the airport, went through passport control. The formalities were a breeze. Crossing the border wasn't hard either, it was like crossing the street. A man told me that Islamic State had erased the borders, that there were no borders. I'd heard of it, but I didn't quite get it until I saw it myself. If Turkey wanted to stop the refugee influx, it could have long ago."
Passports left behind by those killed during the battle show that the fighters came through Turkey.
The locals, and sadly, many of them children, spoke of the horror everyone had lived under during ISIS' two year control of the town.
The documentary then goes through a flat once occupied by what appears to be an ISIS accountant of some sort, the flat had all kinds of oil related documents.
ISIS would take oil from the Jabisah oil field near the town of Shaddadi in Northern Syria, to Raqqa, and ultimately to Turkey where they would sell it says Ghazi Hussein, a resident of Hasakah province, who witnessed the terrorists having Jabisah under their control.
One local estimated that ISIS made a million dollars a week.
YPJ (women's division of the YPG) fighters explained that all of the gear found on ISIS fighters is from Turkey, and are curious as to why nobody is connecting the dots yet.
One captured ISIS fighter even says that "Erdogan is the father of ISIS."
You can watch the full documentary below [warning: contains content that may be disturbing]