IHH takes independent steps from the official State policy and this pisses off greatly President Erdogan. It is known that Erdogan criticized IHH's irresponsive moves many times. Their whole organization is existing to serve the State in its affairs, but they went rogue and crossed some lines. They didn't learnt their lessons and want to try again the same stupidity as the last time in which people lost their lives and no help reached the Palestinian people in the end.
There are different types of Islamists in Turkiye with more moderate or radical views. If the ordinary citizens with an Islamist views, the common Erdogan supporters are 1 in the scale of 5, the guy who would die solely in the name of his persona without asking questions is 3, ISIS is 5 then the types of IHH guys together with Hizbul Tahrir are 4.
Those are the same guys which think that Al-Shabaab are a mujahideen against the corrupt Somali government, the same types that think Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham in Syria is a revolutionary force against the Assad and the corrupt Turkish supported forces and sees organizations like the Taliban, Hamas and Al-Qaeda as legitimate forces and sides representing the Muslim world.
Such organizations are easy to exploit due to the fact that their leadership, personnel and supporters are consisted of highly motivated people who know what they are doing and have the needed contacts in jihadist circles. While they were very useful on many occasions for the Turkish Intelligence, they started to become more radical and rogue with the years. One of the sole reasons for many countries to slander Turkiye and the National Intelligence Organization for their alleged support to the global jihadism is this organization. While they have a great humanitarian role all around the world, this is a great mask for covering up their support for different jihadist organizations and MIT operations abroad when they are useful.
The problem with IHH is that the damage it does starts to exceed their good deeds and service by trying to dictate the foreign affairs of Turkiye over the decision making capacity of President Erdogan and they even want to influence internal processes in the country by organizing illegal gatherings, taking place in organizing attacks against foreign diplomatic facilities and military installations where foreign forces are stationed.
The name of this organization is present in intelligence reports in connection to the global terrorism all around the world. In earlier raids against this organization by the Turkish security forces weapons, explosives and Al-Qaeda related persons were found, seized and arrested. In the recent 5 years such organizations intensified its activities in Turkiye, started their own religious magazines with the aim of propagating radical Islam and even leadership figures that are taking place in lists containing the names of businessmen financing terrorism with life imprisonment sentences in other countries were let to meet Turkish official figures within the Diyanet and even people within the provincial administration in Turkiye.
An example of a terrorist that was allowed to roam freely, connected to the financing the global terrorism is Hakem Al-Mutairi. A Kuwaiti businessman taking place in the "terror lists" of several Gulf countries and Egypt. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in relationship with attempts of
overthrowing the government system, espionage in Kuwait, but managed to acquire an unlimited residence from Turkiye's migration authorities. The same authorities who allowed millions of illegal migrants from Syria, Africa and the Central Asian republics of which there are thousands of terrorists.
After multiple reports reached the Turkish security forces he was arrested and was going to be extradited to Kuwait within the search warrant in the INTERPOL system. Unfortunately the Turkish government bent their knees before the Muslim Brotherhood officials who stated: "Such stances destroy Turkey’s image in the Islamic world." and he was released on the next day. He is allowed to propagate dangerous Salafism including in universities and his literature (banned in many countries) is translated and published in Turkiye. It contains critics towards the secular ruling system in Turkiye and open insults towards Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
While I fully support asymmetric approaches in achieving different military and political objectives I am against such people to be let operating so freely in Turkiye. President Erdogan likes to use the example with the snake who bites back. The snake which is growing up in Turkiye is very venomous and has the potential to not only endanger the moderate Islamic views of the majority of Turks in favor of more radical ones, but it can also endanger President Erdogan himself.
If this organization gets out of control they may turn into a national security threat for Turkiye. President Erdogan is aware of all this and despite numerous attempts at violating the official State policy their ear including the ear of IHH was pulled and them put on their places. Especially with the events in Syria and Turkiye, the Turkish security services started to look very seriously on the jihadist threat. Multiple operations were conducted both in Syria and in Turkiye against jihadists endangering the national security and the national interests of Turkiye. IHH also got its fair share.
Erdogan despite his controversial politics knows about the dangers of these organizations. I am only concerned about his ability of balancing the processes and the possible loss of control.
Let's see what Erdogan's comment on IHH and Bulent Yildirim was in 2016 (there was a video of the speech but got removed after IHH attacked Incirlik and Turkish security forces responded earlier this year
) :
President Erdogan:
"Did you even ask the Prime Minister regarding the issue of sending humanitarian help? We are already giving the required assistance to Gaza and Palestine. But while we are giving assistance we are not doing it as a demonstration of power but we always did it and we are doing it within the international diplomacy"
My warning to those who support these organizations in opposition to the national security and national policy decisions of the Republic of Turkiye is to return from this mistake while there's still time. There are not much things that are hitting harder in life than the Turkish SOF hitting your door at 4:30 in the morning.
