Intelligence
General Staff intelligence warned military units about
pro-al-Qaeda Tahşiyeciler
Members of the al-Qaeda-affiliated group
known as Tahşiyeciler are seen being taken into custody in 2010 after they were
raided in operations.
January
02, 2015, Friday/ 18:30:37/ TODAY'S ZAMAN / ANKARA
Veteran
journalist Nazlı Ilıcak disclosed on Friday top secret military intelligence
documents that indicate that the General Staff's intelligence bureau has been
monitoring Tahşiyeciler, a radical religious group supportive of al-Qaeda's
global jihadist ideology, and warned commanders of forces about the group's
activities in March 2009.
In
the case file on Tahşiyeciler that was classified as secret by the intelligence
unit and sent to the office of the Land Forces Commander by General Staff
intelligence head Gen. İsmail Hakkı Pekin on March 13, 2009, Tahşiyeciler was
described as an al-Qaeda-linked group. The intelligence documents said the
group's leader, Mehmet Doğan, sought to implement al-Qaeda's ideology, telling
his followers to join former Taliban leader Osama bin Laden's army in
Afghanistan and urging them to assassinate the country's political and
religious leaders.
The
file said Doğan saw bin Laden as a military commander of the Mahdi [prophesied
redeemer of Islam] that the entire Muslim world is waiting for, and al-Qaeda as
the army of the Mahdi.
During
a Jan. 22, 2010 operation targeting the group, police raided the homes and
offices of 112 people across Turkey and discovered three hand grenades, one
smoke bomb, seven handguns, 18 hunting rifles, electronic parts for explosives,
knives and a large cache of ammunition.
Doğan
served 17 month in jail in pretrial detention and later was released. His case
is still pending.
In
video footage seized from Tahşiyeciler safe houses, Doğan can be heard calling
his followers to armed jihad. The footage was aired on the CNN Türk and
Habertürk national networks in 2010. Doğan says in a video tape that the head
of the Turkish government and the head of the religious authority are
foreigners and should be killed in an armed attack.
“I'm saying, go build arms and kill [them]," he instructs followers in the video, continuing, "If the sword is not used, then this is not Islam."
He can also be heard asking his followers to build bombs and mortars in their homes, claiming that Islam allows for such practices. Doğan said Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and India are not governed by Shariah law and predicted that they will soon be wiped out.
In a video aired by Habertürk, Doğan says: “If an army [al-Qaeda] shows up in Afghanistan and that army calls on you [to join its ranks], you should join that war [jihad] even if you can only crawl.”
Doğan also called then-Prime Minister and now President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a non-Muslim in a sermon recorded on video. “The man at the head of your [Turkish] government is not yours. He is their [infidels'] man. The hoca at your head [head of the Religious Affairs Directorate] is also theirs,” he said, adding, “I am saying, go build arms and shoot [them].”
In his sermon given on June 29, 2004, when a follower asked whether they will decapitate Americans, Doğan replied, “That will come later.” In the same speech, he describes Muslim professors of theology in Turkey as worse than infidels. In another speech on Aug. 13, 2005, Doğan was asked whether Islam is a religion of peace that sanctions the use of force only for defensive purposes, to which he responded: “F*** that. These [beliefs] are made up by Jews. That is the pope's belief.”
Doğan also wrote a book titled “Cihadname” (The book of Jihad), in which he emphasized the global jihad theory of al-Qaeda: “It is a religious duty to fight against non-believers. … A jihad against Jews and Christians is a better deed than jihad against non-believers.”
“I'm saying, go build arms and kill [them]," he instructs followers in the video, continuing, "If the sword is not used, then this is not Islam."
He can also be heard asking his followers to build bombs and mortars in their homes, claiming that Islam allows for such practices. Doğan said Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and India are not governed by Shariah law and predicted that they will soon be wiped out.
In a video aired by Habertürk, Doğan says: “If an army [al-Qaeda] shows up in Afghanistan and that army calls on you [to join its ranks], you should join that war [jihad] even if you can only crawl.”
Doğan also called then-Prime Minister and now President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a non-Muslim in a sermon recorded on video. “The man at the head of your [Turkish] government is not yours. He is their [infidels'] man. The hoca at your head [head of the Religious Affairs Directorate] is also theirs,” he said, adding, “I am saying, go build arms and shoot [them].”
In his sermon given on June 29, 2004, when a follower asked whether they will decapitate Americans, Doğan replied, “That will come later.” In the same speech, he describes Muslim professors of theology in Turkey as worse than infidels. In another speech on Aug. 13, 2005, Doğan was asked whether Islam is a religion of peace that sanctions the use of force only for defensive purposes, to which he responded: “F*** that. These [beliefs] are made up by Jews. That is the pope's belief.”
Doğan also wrote a book titled “Cihadname” (The book of Jihad), in which he emphasized the global jihad theory of al-Qaeda: “It is a religious duty to fight against non-believers. … A jihad against Jews and Christians is a better deed than jihad against non-believers.”
The
military intelligence documents also contain information collected on other
suspects such as Mehmet Nuri Turan, the number two in the organization, and
Mustafa Kaplan, a former columnist at the Islamist Vakit daily. The file says
Turan is the closest confidant to Doğan and is the man who coordinates the
activities of Tahşiyeciler in İstanbul and across the country. In the past,
Turan was involved with leftist organizations and dealt with drug traffickers.
The military intelligence also discovered that Turan had worked with militants
of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)…
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