German TV channel films ISIL slave trade in Turkey
A Yazidi family was filmed by TV channel correspondents while buying their relatives to save them from ISIL. (Photo: Cihan)
December 03, 2015, Thursday/ 16:42:29/ TODAY'S ZAMAN / ISTANBUL
German television station ARD has produced footage documenting the slave trade being conducted by the radical terrorist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) through a liaison office in Turkey.
Two correspondents from the TV channel filmed a Yazidi family buying their relatives to save them from ISIL and spoke to witnesses. The Yazidi family contacted a liaison office of ISIL in Turkey through a Kurdish man named Abu Mital, who works as an intermediary for ISIL, in order to purchase a mother, her three children and an 11-year-old boy from ISIL and return them to their family.
In the video, Mital is seen contacting ISIL militants on the Internet, bargaining with them and setting a price for the sale of the woman and the children. Mital then went to the southeastern Turkish province of Gaziantep, where he received information via WhatsApp about the name of the person to whom he had to give money and the address of the ISIL liaison office.
During his visit to the office in Gaziantep, Mital was secretly filmed. The office only employed Syrians and owned a number of money-counting machines. ISIL demanded $20,000 for the woman and $15,000 for the 11-year-old boy. The footage shows Mital handing the money to the Syrians in the office, who then counted the money using the money-counting machines.
After he paid the money, Mital is seen going to a hotel in Syria, where he waited for another WhatsApp message. Mital is then told he will be contacted by someone for the delivery of the woman and her three children. The Yazidi family burst into tears when they are reunited with their relatives in Syria.
Speaking to ARD, Mital said that money transfers in the sale of slaves by ISIL are made through its liaison offices in Turkey. He said he has paid more than $2.5 million to ISIL over the past year for 250 Yazidi women and children who have been purchased by their families. Mital also said that ISIL gives numbers to the female and child slaves and posts their photographs on the Internet for sale.
In a related development, Gaziantep Bar Association President Bektaş Şarklı has filed a criminal complaint regarding the claims about whether ISIL has a liaison office in Gaziantep and its involvement in the sale of Yazidi women and children. Şarklı requested that an investigation be launched into the police force and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), which he accused of negligence. He filed the criminal complaint at the Gaziantep Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.
"We are all uncomfortable with the links between an international terrorist organization and our province. We have requested that a criminal complaint be filed against MİT and the police on charges of abuse of duty and negligence because they have failed to take the necessary measures or collect the necessary intelligence before these incidents were covered by the media," Şarklı told Today's Zaman on Wednesday. He added that the alleged crimes of ISIL in Turkey are covered by the relevant articles of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) concerning human smuggling, prostitution, limitations imposed on individual freedom, genocide, crimes against humanity and migrant smuggling.
Ankara categorically denies allegations that it turns a blind eye to ISIL's activities across the Syrian border.
Last year, the ARD claimed that ISIL has a liaison office in İstanbul's Fatih district and that many militants going to Syria have been given up to 400 euros and assisted in crossing the border to join the terrorist organization. The story is said to be based on information the station received from sources in the European Commission (EC).
http://www.todayszaman.com/diplomacy_german-tv-channel-films-isil-slave-trade-in-turkey_406023.html
