Rendezvous With Terrorists in Turkey

Date: 25 October 2014 - 21:05

News ID: ۶۶۷۴

ONCUPINAR, Turkey (Dispatches) -- The Turkish border crossing of Oncupinar, an hour’s drive from the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo, is a chaotic buzz of people waiting to pass into one of the most violent regions in the world. Border guards stand by with machine guns to prevent militants from joining the flow, but within their sight smugglers offer to take travelers across for a surprisingly small fee.

One of the men, who claimed to be a former officer for Syrian intelligence, said he charged just over $20 – but was willing to bargain. Abdel-Rauf, who gave only his first name for fear of prosecution, said he could take clients within an hour and even help them carry their bags a few hundred meters into Syria.

A thin man in his 30s with a close-cropped beard, Abdel-Rauf asked whether the travelers were headed for territory controlled by pro-Western militants or by ISIL.

Interviews with a half dozen smugglers at Oncupinar and other border crossings indicate that foreign militants approach them regularly – and that the border is porous, with areas near Oncupinar and the adjacent city of Kilis as the primary illegal crossing points. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared arrest or violence from criminals and militants they help cross.

Some of the smugglers said they avoid people they suspect might be foreign fighters, while others said they don’t ask questions.

The smugglers told stories about being approached by foreigners they suspect to be militants. Some said they avoid helping people who are not Syrian or Turkish, for fear of attention by authorities watching for foreign fighters.

All of those interviewed said that they had seen foreigners, including Westerners, trying to cross; it was impossible to tell how many were trying to join ISIL and how many other militant groups.

One ex-smuggler, who now makes a living exchanging currency and asked to be identified only by his first name, Mustafa, said that late last month, he saw three tall blond men wandering around and approached them to ask if he could help.

Mustafa, an earnest 25-year-old Syrian who wore jeans and a Levi’s shirt, said the men were dressed in shorts, sneakers and long shirts and apparently did not speak Arabic.

One of them addressed him in English and asked how to get to ISIL territory.

"The accent was 100% American,” he recalled. "I watch movies. His accent wasn’t British or anything else.”

He told the men about a nearby crossing and offered to take them there. They set an appointment to meet, but he said the three men never showed up.

Other smugglers backed his account of an ISIL crossing point close to a refugee camp in Kilis, and also mentioned one further east near the Syrian city of Jarablus.

Sipping tea in a black leather jacket, sandals and baseball cap in a cafe in Kilis, a smuggler who identified himself as Abu Muhammad said a Frenchman, his wife and two children approached him early this month. The woman was wearing a hijab, but he could see blond eyebrows and blue eyes. One of the kids was about 3; the other a baby.

He gave his fee as 20 Turkish lira, just under $9. He splits that with a driver, who brings the travelers to a hole cut in the fence.

Nothing stops them from bringing light weapons through. "You can take over, say, five AK-47s in a bag like this,” he said, indicating with his hands the size of a normal duffel bag.

As he spoke, another smuggler stood on a terrace with three men sealing a deal to cross the border.