President Erdoğan’s revelation that Turkey had deported one of the bombers in the 22 March Brussels attacks was tantamount more to a confession about the transfer of jihadists overseas than it was a “warning” to the Belgian government. Turkey has been returning “foreign terrorist fighters” to European and other countries, often allegedly without properly specifying any links with terror

Turkey deported one of the men who would go on to conduct the 22 March Brussels attacks, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has claimed, but the circumstances of the future perpetrator’s deportation suggests that Turkey failed to properly inform Belgian authorities about the individual’s terrorist links as part of a larger program of the transfer of jihadists to European and other countries.

“One of the perpetrators of the Brussels attack is a person whom we detained in June 2015 in [the southeastern province of] Gaziantep and deported,” Erdoğan said at a joint press conference with his Romanian counterpart, Klaus Iohannis, in Ankara on 23 March.

“We informed the Brussels Embassy of the deportation process of the attacker with a note on 14 July 2015. However, the Belgians released the attacker despite his deportation. Despite our warning, the Belgians could not determine any ties with terrorism. We also informed the Netherlands [about this information],” Erdoğan said.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry subsequently identified the person in question as Ibrahim El Bakraoui, who was one of the bombers at Brussels’ Zaventem Airport.

In all, at least 31 people died in three explosions at the airport, as well as the Belgian capital’s Maalbeek Metro Station.

Days before the bombing, Erdoğan had said “there was no reason for a bomb not to explode in Belgium” after he expressed anger at a tent set by Kurdish activists in the city.

Individual sent to the Netherlands, not Belgium: Brussels

Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens quickly denied Erdoğan’s assertions, noting that El Bakraoui had been deported to the Netherlands, not Belgium.

El Bakraoui had served time in prison for a non-terror crime and had not been known at the time to have had any connection to terror, Geens said.

The Dutch Justice Ministry, meanwhile, said an investigation was started following Erdoğan’s assertions.

On 24 March, a Turkish official told Reuters that El Bakraoui had actually been deported from Turkey a second time after first being removed from the country in July 2015 for “possibly being a foreign fighter.”

El Bakraoui was deported from Turkey on 25 August 2015 from Antalya, the source said, but did not specify his country of destination.

Export of jihadists

Until now, Turkey has defined suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters as “foreign terrorist fighters” when it detains them along the Turkish-Syrian border. In the event that the captured individuals are suspected ISIL fighters, however, Turkish authorities have refused to open legal cases, opting instead to send them to Return Centers controlled by governor’s offices, from which they are sent back to European and other countries.

In so doing, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and the governor’s offices are accused of exporting ISIL jihadists to other countries, often without properly informing destination countries about their activities.

Questions regarding dormitories for jihadists

The Hatay People’s Assembly-Assembly for the Right to Life against War recently touched on the deportation of “foreign terrorist fighters” in a report titled “The Impact of the Syrian War and Turkey’s Syrian Policies on Hatay.”

The province has become a two-way transfer point for jihadists, the report said, noting that ISIL’s presence within the town and al-Nusra’s predominance in border areas was overt.

“The old dormitory is a source of concern in the town of Anayazı. The same building had been condemned for being hazardous with the students evacuated. Later, however, it was converted into a guarded building. The lack of any explanations addressing the concerns has fed suspicions. In reality, the building has been converted into a Return Center by the governor,” the report said.

“A local source who asked to remain anonymous said the Return Center houses ISIL militants who are being transferred to third countries from here. As reports in the foreign press showed, these countries include Ukraine. The walls have been raised in the building after some Chechen jihadists escaped around four or five months ago,” it said.

The impact of the Syrian war and Turkey’s Syrian policies on Hatay report -I

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