ISIL's bookstore in Turkey's Antep province: still open and active
ERK ACARER
erkacarer@birgun.net / @eacarer
The indictment on the ‘attack at Police Department in Antep on 1 May 2016’, which was prepared by Antep’s chief prosecutor’s office and submitted to the 8th Heavy Penal Court, lists 110 suspects and it is full of scandalous information.
On 1 May 2016, a car bomb attack at Antep’s main police station was carried by an ISIL member named İsmail Güneş. The attack caused 3 police officers to lose their lives and led 27 staff members of the station and 7 civilians to get wounded.
While the content of the indictment reveals a number of scandals, the same question comes to mind: Is this how you (officials) fight against ISIL?
Mekke Bookstore
The testimony of an anonymous witness with a code name of ‘Piramit’ has once again brought to surface how ISIL has turned Turkey’s border province Gaziantep into a base of the jihadist group. Moreover, the statements included in the indictment also reveal that ISIL is actually carrying out its activities in the city in full-speed.
The Mekke Bookstore of Antep, which is operated by ISIL and used as the group’s logistic warehouse, is still running.
Here is what Piramit said in his testimony when talking about a suspect, Cuma Şahin: “He runs the Mekke Bookstore near Elmacı Market; he is known as Cuma the bookseller. He may be storing equipment received for the organization (ISIL) in book boxes. The person, whose real identity was revealed to me here, is the man named as Cuma Şahin.”
The testimony of the suspect Cuma Şahin is also included in the indictment with the following statement: “It’s been revealed that he (Cuma Şahin) said in his testimony: ‘I do not recognize the current constitution (of Turkey) because I see Allah’s sharia as the constitution. I did not cast a vote in the elections and I do not affiliate myself with any political view. I think of the current government as something that is lesser of evils. I do not cast votes because I believe in Allah’s sharia’. In digital materials seized from the suspect Cuma Şahin, images that suggest his possible ties with armed terrorist organization DAESH have been found.”
All the while, the Mekke Bookstore, which is operated by ISIL and used as the group’s warehouse is still open and active today!
Source: https://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/antep-te-isid-kitabevi-isletiyor-160807.html