Turkish NGO with terror links sends legal notice to Organiser for exposing its connections with radical Islamist outfit PFI

Turkish ‘NGO’ IHH (?nsan Hak ve Hürriyetleri ve ?nsani Yard?m Vakf?) has sent a legal notice to Organiser weekly for calling it a ‘Jihadi Outfit’. The portal of Organiser weekly on November 16, 2020, had given a piece of news about the meeting between the leaders of Islamist outfit- Popular Front of India with the representatives of IHH in 2018. All the information cited in the article was used from authentic sources and was verified before posting. The report regarding PFI – IHH meeting was published by ‘Nordic Monitor’.

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There have been multiple reports published on various reputed platforms regarding the terror links IHH have. In fact, the Turkish anti-terror squad itself had raided the offices of IHH along the Syrian border as part of an operation in six cities against individuals suspected of links to al Qaeda. Due to its links with Islamic terrorist outfits, IHH has been designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, Germany, and the Netherlands.

A report by Jonathan Schanzer for the Foundation for Defence of Democracies states that “The IHH came under considerable scrutiny following the 2010 flotilla to Gaza. The Dutch and German governments both issued designations of purported IHH branches for their ties to Hamas (the Turkish IHH denied any connection to them). U.S. agencies also began examining whether the IHH deserved a terror designation. A leaked classified cable reveals the Treasury Department’s concerns that the IHH has provided Hamas with material assistance.”

“Concerns have surfaced regarding the IHH’s support for extremists in Syria. A march 2013 McClatchy report suggests that the IHH provides aids to fighters in Syria, including the Salafist faction Ahrar al-sham, which fights alongside al-Queda affiliates Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS. In 2004, IHH came under scrutiny when the Turkish media alleged that the charity was transporting weaponry to Syria,” the report stated.

In the report, IHH: The nonprofit face of Jihadism, published by the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, the close ties between IHH and Erdogan’s ruling party is shown. The report says, “The IHH linkage to the ruling government of Turkey is obvious from the makeup of its board of trustees. Several have close ties to President Erdogan. For example, board member Hakan Albayrak was a columnist for the Yeni Safak daily newspaper, one of the main supporters of the Erdogan and the AKP (Justice and Development Party) in Turkey Albayrak was also among the activists who boarded the Gaza Blue Flotilla with Yildirim in 2010. Albayrak and Yildirim were arrested during the raid and deported by the Israeli Defense Forces Zeyid Aslan, another board member is one of the founders of IHH and has served as a member of the Turkish Parliament from the AKP.”

“IHH also closely works with AKP‐affiliated NGOs in the United States, including the Zakat Foundation, MUSIAD, and Islamic Relief. For example, according to a Zakat Foundation newsletter published in 2003, Zakat had sponsored “two truck convoys travelling from Turkey to Mosul, Kirkuk, and Baghdad carrying at least $120,000 worth of supplies in coordination with IHH,” the report states.

The report also disclosed that IHH operations parallel to the Turkish government’s foreign policy. Erdogan has openly said that he considers IHH alongside the state‐owned TIKA or the Turkish Religious Affairs, Diyanet, as tools for his foreign policy.

The reports point out that, “IHH was utilized in various ways to assist terrorist organizations including the transfer of the wounded ISIS and al Qaeda fighters via ambulances from the conflict zones to Turkey and smuggling weapons and foreign fighters with the same ambulances as they return and using IHH humanitarian aid trucks to transfer weapons to terrorists It is also widely known among the customs officers in Turkey that IHH trucks are untouchable for two reasons. The first is due to the official orders demanding the IHH trucks to pass the customs rapidly without being stopped, often under the coordination of the Turkish National Intelligence (MIT) and their escort vehicles. Secondly, Turkish officers in Turkey learned the hard way that anyone who intervenes the IHH operations, or any other operations regarding the MIT activities or Erdogan’s secret dealings, would be fired and most probably arrested.”

The legal notice by IHH mentions the 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan and states that the Nordic Monitor is affiliated to a ‘terror outfit’. They are also accused of running global propaganda against Turkey. Seriously! The whole motto of Erdogan was to murder the secular fundamentals on which Mustafa Ataturk founded modern-day Turkey. Conversion of Hagia Sophia into a Mosque is just another manifestation. Erdogan also teamed up with Pakistan to create an Islamic block positioning away from the Arab world where he could be the ‘Khalifa’.

There are multiple reports available in the public domain about Turkey trying to meddle with India’s internal affairs and try to flare up communal tension. A Hindustan Times report states that “The TUGVA, which functions under Erdogan’s son Bilal’s patronage, has developed strong links within India by establishing connections with Islamic outfits in India including Jamaat-e-Islamic Organisation’s student wing, Student Islamic Organisation (SIO)”.

Also, IHH met the leader of PFI, which is accused of anti-National activities including murders, smuggling, Hawala transactions and having links with terror outfits. Anyone with a minimum common sense can understand that PFI is behind this legal notice. Hence, PFI is just using IHH as a proxy against Organiser weekly, a publication which keeps India’s national interest above everything.

Interestingly, in the legal notice, IHH makes a claim that “there is no court decision to justify their claims”. In a nation where the President dictates Judges what to do, any possible action against his favourites seems to be unreal.

A notorious organisation of such low reputation threatening to take legal action against Organiser weekly is laughable. We exist due to our courage to ‘call a space a spade’. Hence, we are republishing our article: https://www.organiser.org/wp-content/uploads/Encyc/2020/11/16/Popular-Front-of-India-met-with-Turkey-s-IHH.html