Thread by @Rasha_Alazawe

Thread , Very interesting report:
#ISIS Ambassador in #Ankara !!!
by @AnneSpeckhard

1/ Abu Mansour, an electrical engineer from #Morocco, came to #Syria in 2013. He traveled from Casablanca, Morocco, to Istanbul, Turkey, and through the southern border of Turkey into Syria. His first stop was Idlib, Syria, just as hostilities between al Nusra and ISIS had begun.

2/ Abu Mansour ended up on the ISIS side of that rift and was assigned by ISIS the job of an intake official on the Syrian side of the Turkish border. His job was to receive the steady flow of foreign fighters streaming into ISIS via #Turkey.

3/ "My job was to direct operatives to receive the foreign fighters in Turkey,” Abu Mansour explains, referring to the network of ISIS-paid people who facilitated foreign fighter travel from Istanbul to the Turkish border towns of Gaziantep, Antakya, Sanliurfa, etc.

4/ “Most of them were paid by Dawlah [ISIS],” Abu Mansour explains, but differentiates them from ISIS members, due to their non-ideological motivations. “Most of those working on the Turkish side, their goal is money,” he said.

5/ Although when asked about ISIS networks inside Turkey, he also admits, “Many in Turkey believe and give their bayat [oath of allegiance] to Dawlah. There are ISIS guys living in Turkey, individuals and groups, but no armed groups inside Turkey.”

6/ “[My job was] guarding the borders between Syria and Turkey and to receive the fighters,” Abu Mansour explains, smiling at being recognized as more powerful than he was originally conveying. “I oversaw reception at Tal Abyad, Aleppo, Idlib, all their borders,” he answers.

7/ During 2014 and 2015, we had approximately 35,000 [foreign fighters who] entered,” Abu Mansour recounts. His numbers match those of experts who estimate at least 40,000 foreign fighters went to Syria, most ending up in ISIS.

8/ “I went to #Raqqa after the coalition assault against the border,” Abu Mansour recalls. “Eastern Syria got stability in Raqqa, etc.” This was in 2015 and 2016.

9/ when @AnneSpeckhard ask Abu Mansour if injured ISIS fighters were allowed to cross the border and receive medical care in Turkey, things suddenly take another twist, as we realize that Abu Mansour was not only an emir, but an ISIS diplomat.

10/ There were some agreements and understandings between the Turkish intelligence and ISIS emni about the border gates, for the people who got injured,” Abu Mansour continues. “I had direct meeting with the MIT [the Turkish National Intelligence Organization]" he said.

11/ 10/ “I passed the borders and they let me pass. [At the border,] the Turks always sent me a car and I’m protected. Abu Mansour recalls.

11/ The ISIS Usefulness for Turkey
“There was no changing money between ISIS and Turkey,” Abu Mansour answers, and agrees it was a coordinating function – diplomacy where “both sides benefit.”

12/ The benefit to Turkey, according to Abu Mansour, was that “Turkey wants to control Northern Syria. Actually they had ambitions not only for controlling the Kurds. They wanted all the north, from Kessab (the most northern point of Syria) to #Mosul.”

13/ Abu Mansour makes it clear that what he was told in his meetings with Turks was put forward as President #Erdogan’s vision.

تقرير مهم وخطير ، #سفير_داعش_في_أنقرة
ل @AnneSpeckhard

يتحدث التقرير عن #أبومنصور_المغربي وهو مهندس كهرباء جاء من #المغرب إلى #سوريا في 2013.
سافر من #الدار_البيضاء ، المغرب ، إلى #اسطنبول ، #تركيا ، ثم عبر الحدود الجنوبية لتركيا إلى سوريا. كانت محطته الأولى #إدلب ، سوريا ، حيث تمركز #النصرة و #داعش.

2 / انضم #أبومنصور_المغربي إلى #داعش وكلفه الأخير بوظيفة مسؤول استقبال المقاتلين على الجانب السوري من الحدود التركية. كانت مهمته تتمحور حول تسهيل على التدفق المستمر للمقاتلين الأجانب الذين ينضمون إلى داعش قادمين من #تركيا

3/ يقول #أبومنصور_المغربي :
"مهمتي هي توجيه العملاء الأجانب لاستقبال المقاتلين القادمين في #تركيا " في إشارة إلى الأشخاص الذين يعملون على تسهيل سفر المقاتلين الأجانب من #اسطنبول إلى مدن #غازي_عنتاب ، و #أنطاكية ، #سانليورفا ، إلخ...

10 /
يؤكد #أبومنصور_المغربي أنه كانت هناك بعض الاتفاقات والتفاهمات بين المخابرات التركية و #داعش حول البوابة الحدودية، ومعالجة جرحى داعش في تركيا، تقسيم المياه، وإدخال المقاتلين " ويكمل أبو منصور: "لقد عقدت اجتماعًا مباشرًا مع MIT [هيئة الاستخبارات القومية التركية]".

يقول #أبومنصور_المغربي:
"تركيا استفادت من قيام ما يعرف (بالدولة الإسلامية) #داعش
ولم يكن هناك عائد مادي بين داعش وتركيا ، لكنها فوائد تنسيقية - دبلوماسية تصب في مصلحة الجانبين". ويكمل: "كانت تريد تركيا السيطرة على جميع المناطق ذات الغالبية الكردية المتاخمة لحدودها وحتى الموصل".