Swiss intelligence: Turkey key transit area, safe haven for Islamic State

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey plays a key role as a transit area and safe haven for the Islamic State group, according to the 2020 edition of Switzerland's Security report from the country's Federal Intelligence Service.

Published in late October, the survey says the core organisation of the Islamic State has considerable resources in terms of personnel and finances.

"It has been preparing for the prospect of defeat for a long time: cadres and financial resources have been moved to safe places. In Syria and Iraq it is now an underground organisation which, though fragmented, has intact structures at the regional level. It has carried out thousands of attacks in Syria and Iraq since the fall of the caliphate," the report reads.

"Despite the limitations referred to above, the core organisation entertains extensive transnational networks. Turkey plays a key role in this context as a transit area and safe haven. This assessment is corroborated by the fact that adherents of the Islamic State have been captured or killed in areas close to the Turkish border on numerous occasions."

In 2019, the Turkish Minister of the Interior publicly confirmed the increasing presence and heightened activity of jihadists in Turkey. In the same year, the Islamic State declared Turkey one of its provinces.