Syria 'incubator' for terrorists, says think-tank head

ANKARA

War-torn Syria has become a “black hole” which is exporting terrorism to the world, according to the head of a Turkey-based think tank.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Professor Birol Akgun of the Ankara-based Institute of Strategic Thinking – known by its Turkish initials SDE – described the five-year crisis as an “incubator” for global terrorism.

Prof. Akgun said Syria had replaced Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley as a refuge for terror groups. The Lebanese region was once used by the PKK, which Turkey classifies as a terrorist organization.

In his remarks, Akgun said that not all fighters which crossed into Syria to join Daesh or the YPG [the Syrian affiliate of PKK] or to side with the Bashar al-Assad regime were motivated by religious concerns.

"Every kind of idea [including] the secular and Marxist exist; we do not discuss this much, but Syria has become a training and exercise base for terror organizations," the think-tank official said.

Syrian truce

Akgul said Turkey's resolution had paved the way for a truce brokered by Russia and the United States.

"If Turkey had not been so insistent and said 'We will intervene if needed', the truce would not have been maintained so rapidly," he said.

He said the truce would continue with small clashes for one year, as it was not an inclusive cessation.

"There is a selective truce. Russians and the Free Syrian Army exist between al-Qaeda and al-Nusra...Therefore, [Russia] can bomb Turkmen mountains claiming al-Nusra exists here," Akgul added.

Last week, a cessation-of-hostilities deal was announced by both Washington and Moscow.

It is the latest in a series of diplomatic efforts ostensibly aimed at ending the conflict, which will soon enter its sixth year.

Daesh and al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate, the Nusra Front, along with other unspecified groups designated terrorist organizations by the UN Security Council, are not included in the agreement.

'German arms on market'

Akgun also commented on weapons supplied by Germany to peshmerga fighters, the armed forces of the Iraqi Kurdish government, for use against Daesh terrorists, adding he learned this from German media.

"These weapons are being sold at a fire sale in northern Iraqi markets, because these peshmergas are not members of a regular army.

"They do not have a uniformed identity," added Akgul, describing peshmerga members as civilians in daytime and soldiers when they were on guard duty.

He said after Masoud Barzani - the president of the Kurdish government - failed to pay their salaries for two months, the peshmergas sold their weapons and went to Germany: "I read this from German media," he added.

In Sep. 2014, peshmerga fighters, backed by German weapons, launched a fight against Daesh members in Kobani, which was the scene of fierce clashes between Kurdish fighters and Daesh terrorists.