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<p></p><p><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9646/turkey-organ-trading-isis">https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9646/turkey-organ-trading-isis</a><br></p><p><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>Charges that Islamic State (IS) engages in organ trading -- taking
body parts from their victims in Iraq and Syria and selling them to
traffickers in Turkey</b></span> -- have surfaced again.</p>
<p>The Iranian news network <i>Alalam</i> <a href="http://en.alalam.ir/news/1869478" target="_blank">reported</a> on October 6 that IS has set up a market in Turkey where it sells human organs stolen from innocent people. <i>Alalam</i> also posted a photograph of a person whose organ was taken.</p>
<p>The <i>Iraqi News</i> also <a href="http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/isis-traffics-mosul-children-turkey-generating-finance/" target="_blank">reported</a> that<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> IS has kidnapped and sold <span style="background-color:rgb(255,229,153)">many children in Syria</span> to Turkish organ traffickers in order to finance its operations.</b></span></p>
<p>Turkey's government-funded news service, <i>Anadolu Agency,</i> <a href="http://aa.com.tr/en/world/isil-opens-medical-school-in-syria/87344" target="_blank">reported</a> months ago that <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>ISIS opened a "medical school" in Northern Syria.</b></span></p>
<p>Wayne Madsen, an American investigative reporter and a former
intelligence analyst at the US National Security Agency (NSA), told
Gatestone that IS has been, and is, involved in organ trading. "The
Uyghur battalions of ISIS are heavily engaged in this. They are also
known to be involved in organ harvesting in China."</p>
<p>"We have no reason to doubt them given similar atrocities that have
been documented and other heinous crimes for which ISIL has taken
credit," U.S. State Department said in response to charges of IS's organ
harvesting. In December, the U.S. government revealed that it had
obtained an ISIS document during a raid by Special Forces in Syria. <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>"The
apostate's life and organs do not have to be respected and may be taken
with impunity,"</b></span> the document said.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anne-speckhard/isis-defector-reports-on-sale-of-organs_b_8897708.html" target="_blank">Anne Speckhard wrote</a>
that ISIS is involved in organ smuggling and earns profits from it.
"Former prisoner Abo Rida stated that surgeons for IS terror group
removed kidneys and corneas from prisoners. He said that <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>they were told
that jihadists were more deserving of organs,</b></span>" she added.</p>
<p>Speckhard told Gatestone that given their mentality – that<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> anyone who
does not believe as they do can be killed </b></span>- it is believable that IS
is involved in organ trading: "Defectors we talked to said it is
happening."</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.shiitenews.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=25282:isis-sets-up-market-in-turkey-for-trading-body-organs-report&Itemid=229" target="_blank">press reports</a>,
<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>there is high demand for organs such as kidneys and hearts</b></span>. Based on
the same reports, <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>a kidney is sold in the Turkish market for $4,000 and a
heart for $6,000.</b></span></p>
<p>The Spanish newspaper, <i>El Mundo,</i> reported that the IS does not
merely use the organs of its captives' bodies for transplants to its
members; it also sells them to other countries as a lucrative business.
Iraq's Ambassador to the UN, Mohammed Alhakim, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/isis-might-be-harvesting-organs-iraqi-diplomat-says/" target="_blank">asked the world body</a> last year to investigate the killing of a dozen Iraqi doctors who rejected IS demands to cut out people's organs.</p>
<p>Speckhard told Gatestone the UN's investigation of Ambassador
Alhakim's charges was inconclusive. She also underlined that they know
some Turkish businessmen were involved in the slave trade with IS.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/isis-revenues-from-smuggled-oil-decline-after-sharqat-liberation" target="_blank">report by Iraqi News</a>
said that<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> IS's organ trafficking comes as the terror group is finding
it <span style="background-color:rgb(255,229,153)">difficult</span> to fund the self-proclaimed caliphate as its <span style="background-color:rgb(255,229,153)">revenues from
oil fields are plunging.</span></b></span></p>
<p>American analysis firm IHS's expert Ludovico Carlino, was cited by
Reuters that as of March 2016, IS's monthly oil revenue has dropped from
80 to 56 million dollars.</p>
<p>IHS senior analyst <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/18/isis-oil-production-takes-a-hit-report.html" target="_blank">Col<span style="background-color:rgb(255,229,153)"><span style=""></span></span>umb Strack said</a>,
"There are fewer people now to tax; the same applies to properties and
land to confiscate." The population of the territory under IS's control
has <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-syria-islamic-sta-idUSKCN0XF0D5" target="_blank">fallen</a> from 9 million to about 6 million.</p>
<p>Nancy Scheper-Hughes, director of Organs Watch, a University of California, Berkeley-based documentation and research project, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/18/middleeast/isis-organ-harvesting-claim/" target="_blank">told CNN</a> that demand for fresh organs during wars and civil wars is insatiable.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.medicaldaily.com/organ-trafficking-international-crime-infrequently-punished-247493" target="_blank">According</a>
to the World Health Organization (WHO),<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> illegal organ trading generates
between $600 million and $1.2 billion in profits each year.</b></span></p>
<p>Mahmut Togrul, a member of the Turkish National Assembly representing
Gaziantep from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), told Gatestone
that, "IS is committing all kinds of atrocities to many innocent people
it considers enemies. They have even sold women in Gaziantep. I have no
doubt that they would sell human organs."</p>
<p>Togrul also blamed the Turkey's AKP regime and said that the Turkish
government has supported IS from the beginning and continues to this
day. "So much so that IS members never refrain from citing Gaziantep as
the second stronghold after Raqqa," Togrul told to Gatestone.</p>
<p>Fethi Albayram, a doctor in Gaziantep, told Gatestone that <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>many young
people who were known to be drug addicts could not be seen on city
streets any more. "What I hear from people is that IS has kidnapped
them. Maybe for organ harvesting..."</b></span></p>
<p>I<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>n the last year, IS has <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/06/turkeys-brutal-year/489383/" target="_blank">killed more than 200 people</a> in Turkey in suicide bombing attacks.</b></span></p>
<p>The Turkish government was <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/attacks-in-turkey-symptomatic-of-failed-strategy-for-extremism-a-1072287.html" target="_blank">criticized</a> in the past for looking the other way regarding the IS activities in Turkey. But the Turkish security agencies have <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-turkey-islamicstate-idUSKCN0VC270" target="_blank">intensified</a> their efforts and raids against IS cells and activities in Turkey.</p>
<p>Many reporters, experts, and eyewitnesses have alleged that Turkey
has actively helped jihadist terrorists in the region by letting IS
members <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7811/turkey-foreign-policy" target="_blank">travel through Turkey</a>. It is argued that Turkey has even provided funds, logistics, and arms for IS members.</p>
<p>According to some reports, IS members have been <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/isis-turkey-throws-kobane-hero-jail-while-treating-islamist-commander-hospital-1490842" target="_blank">treated at Turkish hospitals</a>. According to a Turkish chief of police, there are <a href="http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/turkiye/514593/70_ilde_ISiD_hucresi_var__CHP_ve_HDP_hedefte.html" target="_blank">IS cell houses in seventy cities</a> across Turkey. According to other reports, <b><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">IS members have kidnapped <span style="background-color:rgb(255,229,153)">Yazidi women</span> and girls in Iraq and <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7078/turkey-isis-slaves" target="_blank">sold them in Turkey</a>.</span> </b>The defendants, however, were quickly acquitted of any crime. In December 2015, several German TV channels broadcast footage <a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7078/turkey-isis-slaves" target="_blank">documenting the slave trade</a> being conducted by the Islamic State through a liaison office in Gaziantep, near the border with Syria.</p>
<table style="margin-bottom:5px;max-width:600px" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" align="center">
<tbody><tr>
<td style="max-width:600px;border-width:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:black"><img src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/1392.jpg" width="600" height="341" border="0"><p style="font-size:82%;margin:4px 6px">A
news report from German broadcaster ARD shows photos of Yazidi slaves
distributed by ISIS (left), as well as undercover footage of ISIS
operatives in Turkey taking payment for buying the slaves (right).</p></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>On April 17, 2016, the Turkish newspaper <i>Hurriyet</i> reported
that the Gaziantep police department had raided the office and found
$310,000, many foreign (non-Turkish) passports and 1,768 pages of Arabic
receipts that showed the transfer of millions of dollars between Turkey
and Syria.</p>
<p>Six people were <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/poetry-erogans-turkey-jihad-satire-out" target="_blank">brought to court</a> for
their involvement in crimes, which included "being members of an armed
terrorist organization." But the complainant, the Gaziantep Bar
Association, <a href="http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/16-gunde-beraat-40089919" target="_blank">was not even invited</a> to attend the hearings, which lasted for sixteen days.</p>
<p>"We learnt of the ruling accidentally. The court made the decision of
acquittal without looking into the documents found by police,"
said Bektas Sarkli, the head of the Gaziantep Bar Association. Bektas
Sarkli told Gatestone that they will appeal.</p>
<p>The former chief of Turkey's counter-terrorism police, Ahmet Yayla, said during <a href="http://www.academia.edu/28511050/My_Testimony_to_the_U.S_House_Foreign_Affairs_Subcommittee_on_Europe_Eurasia_and_Emerging_Threats" target="_blank">recent testimony</a>
to the U.S. House of Representatives that <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>the Turkish Government has
provided funds, logistical support, and arms for IS members.</b></span></p>
<p>Yayla, who now teaches at George Mason University near Washington,
D.C., also told Gatestone that IS's "Turkey Chief" Halis Bayuncuk moves
around in the country freely and tweets often with no problems.</p>
<p>Erkan Sahin, who is the Gaziantep Chairman of the opposition Peoples'
Democratic Party (HDP) told Gatestone that IS uses the city like a
base. "We know that," he said.</p>
<p>Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, on the other hand, <a href="http://www.dailysabah.com/war-on-terror/2016/09/25/most-effective-counter-daesh-fight-waged-by-turkey-erdogan-says" target="_blank">said</a> the most effective fight against Daesh (IS) was waged by Turkey contrary to the concerted disinformation campaign.</p>
<p>But evidence indicates that Turkish forces are primarily <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-kurds-idUSKCN12K0ER" target="_blank">targeting and attacking Kurds in Syria</a>,
who have been the most effective force fighting IS. Years after the
emergence of the Islamic State and the destruction it has brought to
thousands of innocent people, Turkey's reliability as an ally in the
US-led fight against IS has been more than questionable.</p>
<p>The American experts, Steven A. Cook and Michael J. Koplow, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/turkey-is-no-longer-a-reliable-ally-1470869047" target="_blank">wrote</a>:
"Rather than overlook Turkish excesses while hoping Mr. Erdogan will
come around, it is time to search for more reliable allies."</p>
<p>Opinions may vary on how reliable an ally Turkey has been in the
US-led international campaign against the Islamic State. But if IS's
organ- and human-trafficking, as well as other criminal activities,
within Turkey are allowed to go on, IS will continue to renew its
strength for its barbaric fight.</p>
<blockquote><p><i>Kasim Cindemir, a leading journalist from Turkey, is currently based in Washington D.C.</i></p>
</blockquote>
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