Three members of the Islamic State (ISIS), who kidnapped a Yazidi child, transported her from Iraq to Turkey and attempted to sell her online, were released in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, where they currently reside.
In the indictment accepted on March 8 and prepared by Ankara’s prosecutor’s office, the three men are charged with “membership in the ISIS terrorist organization” and “taking part in its senior management.”
Journalist Hale Gönültaş broke the news on August 6 in a special report for the Turkish news website, Duvar.
After being listed for sale on the deep web, the 7-year-old Yazidi girl was rescued in an operation carried out by Turkish police and intelligence teams against an ISIS cell house in Ankara on February 27. Officials announced the raid and the child’s rescue through a press release and video footage.
Yazidis are an indigenous and persecuted non-Muslim community in the Middle East. They were exposed to genocide by ISIS in their ancient homeland of Sinjar (Iraq) in 2014. At least 2,800 Yazidi children and women are estimated to remain captives at the hands of ISIS.
Following the police raid, three Iraqi citizens, Anas V., Nasır H.R. and Sabah A.H.O, were interrogated based on the charges of abducting and holding a Yazidi girl hostage in the ISIS cell house. Anas and Nasır were released pending trial on the condition of judicial control on February 27 – on the day of their detention – following their interrogations. Sabah, however, was arrested and imprisoned in Ankara.
During the first hearing held on June 10, Sabah gave a statement to the court from prison through the Audio and Visual Information System. He was then released pending trial under similar judiciary control measures. The other two defendants, Anas and Nasır, also participated in the hearing.
All three ISIS members are currently on probation in Ankara. They are supposed to daily go to a police station closest to their residences and sign a document showing that they have not left Turkey. Their next hearing is slated for October 5.
The indictment concerning the ISIS terrorists stated that Anas and Nasır had illegally entered Turkey from Iraq. The two ISIS members claimed that they did not know about the kidnapping, that they had no knowledge of each other previously, and that they only had met while in police custody.
The indictment also stated that Anas and Nasir worked under Jabbar Salman Ali Farhan al-Issawi, who is known to have been the closest person to the killed leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Al-Issawi was also killed in an airstrike by Iraqi and US forces on January 28. The indictment included the information that Anas and Nazir were in charge of the “Council of Prisoners” in Fallujah in Iraq.
During his interrogation, Sabah shared the names of ISIS’s top leaders in Syria and Iraq with Turkish authorities, so that those authorities would be able to capitalize on Turkey’s Effective Remorse Act. These names were also included in the indictment.
Sabah claimed that the Yazidi girl was brought to their home in Iraq by his brother, Sabbar H.O., in 2014 when she was either two or two and a half years old. Sabah went on to claim that upon bringing the child to their house, his brother said: “This child is Yazidi. I bought it from ISIS for 500 dollars. She will now grow up in this house.”
According to the indictment, ISIS member Sabbar H.O. went to the Ankara Provincial Immigration Administration with his brother’s wife and applied for an identity card for the Yazidi girl in 2018. He said that they were late in issuing an ID for the child. The child was named “Aise Sabbar A.O.” and an identity card was issued for her.
Sabah, however, denied any involvement in the child’s purchase: “I am not responsible for bringing the child to our home in Iraq. She was brought there by my brother, Sabbar. It was also my brother who named her Aise. My brother later died in a bombing. I do not know about the sales market of Yazidi women and children. I have not kidnapped or bought children.”
Sabah also stated that he joined ISIS during its establishment upon the call of Abu Abdullah, one of the top figures of ISIS in Iraq, and that he followed Abdullah’s orders and instructions. Sabah went on to claim that ISIS gave him a salary. His duties within the organization included being on guard duty in villages and reporting the developments to the management of the organization. He also stated that he used weapons and took part in military conflicts.
Sabah was arrested by Iraqi security forces in early 2017 for his ISIS membership and activities. According to his testimony, he was tortured during his six-month detention in an Iraqi prison. After his release, he entered Turkey via Syria with a fake passport issued under the name “Said Ahmet Muhammed.” He said that he sent his wife, children, his brother’s wife and the Yazidi girl to the house of the second wife of his father who lived in Ankara and that he also settled with his family there.
Meanwhile, the rescued Yazidi girl is still under state protection in Ankara. Joint efforts by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Iraqi government to find her family have failed. A diplomat from the Iraqi Embassy in Ankara told the newspaper Duvar that the girl’s family has not been found. “We think her entire family was killed in the massacre by ISIS in Sinjar,” the diplomat said. The child is receiving psychological support through a rehabilitation program at a hospital, according to Duvar.
This is not the first case of a Yazidi child kidnapped and put on sale in Turkey. Another Yazidi child was sold in Ankara in 2018, and then freed through the mediation efforts of Yazidi and humanitarian-aid organizations. This was another crime exposed by the same courageous journalist, Hale Gönültaş. On July 30, three days after Gönültaş’s article appeared, she received a death threat on her mobile phone from a Turkish-speaking man, who told her that he knew her home address, and then shouted, “Jihad will come to this land. Watch your step!”
Gönültaş has been threatened for writing about ISIS atrocities other times, as well. In May 2017, for instance, she received similar telephone threats after posting two articles: “200,000 children in ISIS camps,” and “ISIS holds 600 children from Turkey.”
In addition, a video of Turkish-speaking children receiving military training from ISIS was sent to her email address. In the video, in which one of them is seen cutting off someone’s head with a knife, the children are saying, “We are here for jihad.”
As Turkey releases ISIS terrorists who have committed many crimes against humanity (including genocide), the same Turkish government is now the second largest jailer of journalists who criticize government policies. Thousands of suspected opponents of the government – including Muslim dissidents, Kurds, leftists, human rights and women’s rights activists – have been branded as “terrorists,” prosecuted and imprisoned. Some are missing. The government announced in 2020 that authorities had opened legal proceedings against 597,783 individuals, detained 282,790, and arrested 94,975.
Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, states that Turkey’s judicial process displays “unprecedented levels of disregard for even the most basic principles of law, such as presumption of innocence, no punishment without crime and non-retroactivity of offences, or not being judged for the same facts again.”
Looking at the actions of the Turkish government, one can’t help but wonder: Why is the Turkish government so tolerant of ISIS members and their crimes while it is completely hostile to the non-violent critics of the government? Perhaps, the answer is that the Turkish government is ideologically closer to, and more allied with, ISIS than it is to its own peaceful citizens who request a democratic and lawful governance.
Uzay Bulut is a Turkish journalist and political analyst formerly based in Ankara.
Elizabeth Lawson says
Until Turkey rids itself of that murderous, anti sémite, anti Christian idiot who governs them, the country will continue to plummet in the universal esteem once established by the great Attaturk. The ONLY place that Turkey is headed under ‘Airdugan’ is down in the esteem of all – where it richly deserves to be. Turkish citizens would be well advised to get rid of Airdugan and all connected with him – after all, what civilized, decent human being would want for a leader one who tolérâtes the kidnapping and sale of little children. By being SO lenient on the Iraqi ISIS child kidnappers, this Turkish leader is sending a message – we ‘understand’ and welcome child kidnappers and enslavement of children.
gravenimage says
Alas, too many Muslim Turks agree with Erdogan.
Oskar says
“Great Ataturk” who targeted the non-muslim indigenous populations of Anatolia, Christians and Jews, (it’s known that the dictator targeted the Christians but he also did target the Jews as he portrayed them as working for Greek interests) unfortunately even today he is celebrated as a “secularist hero”.
Do you really think if Mustafa Kemal was still alive today he would help the Yazidis? Wouldn’t he help his superiour Muslim Turkish kind? As he was a Turkish ultranationalist?
gravenimage says
This is true, Oskar. The Armenian Genocide began under the Ottomans and continued with the “Young Turks” regime–but it did not end there. It continued on under Ataturk. The terrible destruction of Christian-majority Smyrna, then the wealthiest, most comopolitan city in Turkey was under his aegis. And yes–he targeted Jews, as well.
Oskar says
Thank you so much for your comment, Gravenimage. I was away from Jihad Watch for several months due to my mental health gets affected by the sad news on this website, especially horrible news that how Turkey is becoming a genocidal country. I am currently living in Turkey and studying here. I think I stay here for plus 4 years to finish my undergraduate program. But I am trying to be strong, alive and well thanks to your supportive comments.
Today I just read this article and got very angry how Turkey became a sadistic, bigoted country and state-sponsored hatred against non-Muslims: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/05/turkish-mp-threatens-armenian-mp-with-murder
Also I born in “Izmir”, originally named Smyrna but currently living in a more conservative city. Izmir today is considered a secularist city because may be the population of this city could be the descendants of the forcibly converted Greeks and I sometimes think that I could be one of them.
gravenimage says
Oskar, I understand that the news here can be very hard to take–many here have had to take a break from time to time; this is understandible.
It must be especially difficult if you are in Turkey. I have a couple of questions, if you feel comfortable answering them (it’s fine if you don’t).
Do you feel safe coming out as an ex-Muslim, or do you have to keep this hidden? And I have often wondered what, if anything, is taught in Turkey about the destruction of Smyrna? Your being born in Izmir (I almost mentioned Smyrna having been renamed Izmir in my post above) I think you would be the one to ask. Is it ever mentioned? Is it taught in the schools? And if so, how is it characterized–positively or negatively?
Anyway, please hang in there–I know things cannot be easy for you.
Oskar says
I always hide my ex-Muslim identity in public, Gravenimage. Once a time I told my mother that I do not believe in Islam but she did not take it seriously and thought I was kidding, so I did not say anything to her to not to make her upset. I must use Islamic words in public like “Salam Alaikum” in order to show myself like a Muslim and protect myself. Turkey is actually not a secularist country. We are all expected to be Muslims. I also want to point out a thing: In Turkey Islam is blended with Turkish nationalism. If I am not a Muslim Turkish nationalist, I will be persecuted a lot, even those “secularist” Turks will persecute me for not being a Turkish nationalist and classify me as a “traitor.”
About the destruction of Smyrna, I actually don’t remember that we are teached that subject in school. I only remember that our teacher said “the Greeks invaded Izmir and falsely claimed it.” There is a genocidal word in Turkey: “We pushed the Greek into the [Aegean] Sea.” All I remember is this. We’re never teached about the subject maybe because they do not want to show the real face of the history of Islam and Mustafa Kemal.
gravenimage says
Thanks for that account.
Crusades Were Right says
To summarize:
Islamic State alive and well in Genocidistan.
Or, to put it another way:
Another “dog bites man” story.
lol
Keith O says
The only good that comes from this is that this child is now free.
I can’t see these 3 grubs fronting up to court and the Turks will “be unable to locate them”.
gravenimage says
Certainly, it is *very* good that she was not sold into slavery. Not sure how free she is in “protective custody” in Ankara, though…
Keith O says
Freedom is an subjective state GI, at least she is away free those arseholes.
And now that her situation known and she is in protective custody, the government can’t make her “go away”, too many people know about her now.
gravenimage says
Better than it might be, certainly.
Walter Sieruk says
As for those brutal, cruel and vile ISIS jihadist /Muslims kidnapping Yazidi girls and women and using them as sex slaves. This actually started with the founder and prophet of Islam, Muhammad, who all Muslims look to as an example of how to behave.
It’s revealed in the book JESUS AND THE JIHADIS: CONFRONTING THE RAGE OF ISIS by the Christian authors Graig A. Evans and Jeremiah J. Johnson For on page 124 it informs the reader “Muhammad endorsed enslavement of all types…he endorsed sex-slavers as a gift form Allah , and enjoyed offering sex-slaves as gifts…” Further page 125 informs the reader that “Islam has enslaved more people than any other culture.”
Walter Sieruk says
The Bible totally condemns kidnapping and instructs in severe punishment for those who are so despicable to engage in it.
For the Bible teaches “Those who steal someone to sell them as a slave or to keep them for their own slave must be killed.” Exodus 21:16. [E.R.V.]
Infidel says
And now the neocons will start bitching that we shouldn’t have withdrawn, b’cos ISIS is back. The whole thing would be solved if their pet organization NATO was disbanded, we got out of it and started treating Turkey like the adversary that it is, instead of an ally
gravenimage says
Infidel, I certainly agree that Turkey has no business in NATO. But the idea that it was NATO that led these Muslims to kidnap and try to enslave this child or to free those who did is mistaken. This is orthodox Islam.
NATO was not responsible for ISIS and the Islamic State, either–again, this is Islam.
Infidel says
NATO is the reason that people working in the foreign policy establishment in DC consider Turkey their ally: nothing has changed for them since the demise of the Soviet Union. Turkey is still an ally, Saudi Arabia was still an ally (after 9/11), Pakistan was still an ally, Russia was still an enemy, China was still an ally… the list went on. NATO is not the reason that Turkey wants to resurrect its old islamic glory, but it is the reason that the US considers Turkey an ally
Whether Turkey has any business in NATO or not, I dunno, but we definitely have no business there. We have new challenges in the Indo-Pacific, and that should be our #1 geopolitical focus. Whether Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Azerbaijan become more islamic or not, we can support countries like Israel, Emirates and Bahrein while staying out of that region completely
gravenimage says
Turkey Releases Islamic State Terrorists Who Kidnapped Yazidi Child and Attempted to Sell Her Online
……………..
This does not surprise. These horrors are not illegal under Shari’ah.
And I hope the little Yazidi girl is released to her community. Her being in “protective custody” in Ankara does not inspire confidence…
OLD GUY says
What kind of country and leaders puts up with the selling of a child? Turkey is going the wrong direction and should be kicked out of NATO and trade sanctions should be put in place.