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Turkey’s Main Opposition Party Tells Ankara Government To Make Its al-Qaeda Stance Clear
6 March 2013
(EIRNS)—Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) demanded that the government make its policy on al-Qaeda clear. This follows a "tweet" by Turkey’s Ambassador to Chad, Ahmet Kavas, who said that "al-Qaeda is not a terrorist organization." CHP Deputy Chair Faruk Logoglu yesterday called on the government to make clear whether or not it considers al-Qaeda a terrorist organization. Logoglu also revealed that al-Qaeda’s former spokesperson, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, entered Turkey without a passport and was detained, but then was released by Turkish security forces, rather than being extradited to the United States, despite a U.S. request. "What is this person still doing in Turkey?" Logoglu asked, speaking at a press conference at the Parliament. According to unconfirmed news reports in February, the U.S. asked Turkey to extradite Ghaith after his detention in Ankara. Ghaith was seized at a luxury hotel in Ankara after a tip-off from the CIA. Logoglu insisted, "Does the AKP [the ruling Justice and Development Party] government regard al-Qaeda as a terror organization or not? Considering that its ambassador has not been corrected, what kind of conclusion should we draw? It is essential that the government make this issue clear, and that they be open within the context of ongoing efforts toward ending terror and violence in our country." Kavas is not a career diplomat, but was appointed as ambassador by the AKP government. An academic with expertise on Africa, he was on Istanbul University’s Faculty of Theology before being appointed to his Chad post in August 2012. Kavas was especially trained in the history of Ottoman policy in Africa, having studied at the University of Paris under Professor Jean-Louis Triaud. The accusation that the government is being "soft" on al-Qaeda has to do with the fact that al-Qaeda is operating in Syria against the Assad government, an opposition which the Turkish government supports. [DEA] |