Turkish-backed Syrian rebels sold arms to the Islamic State

Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces were caught selling arms to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), prompting a wave of resignations in the Turkish military that protested the delivery of arms to the FSA, Nordic Monitor has learned.

According to secret documents seen by Nordic Monitor, the officers operating in Syria as part of Turkish Military Special Forces Command (Özel Kuvvetler Komutanlığı, or ÖKK) units discovered that FSA fighters sold arms provided by Turkey to ISIS in January 2017.

The scandalous revelation prompted some 50 officers to offer their resignations from the military. The officers protested the sale and questioned the training and arming of FSA fighters while they were cozying up to ISIS and providing them with material support.

Alarmed by the fallout from the incident, the General Staff intervened, and Lt. Gen. Zekai Aksakallı, the then-commander of the Turkish Special Forces, threatened officers who wanted to resign with negative repercussions. He managed to contain the scandal and hushed it up while preventing the officers’ resignation, which could have been an embarrassment for the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Source: Nordic Monitor