Press Releases

05/05/2021

Ban on Ansaar International

Al-Nusra Front has other sources of funds (Press Release)

According to the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), the ban on the Salafist organization "Ansaar International" by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior was insufficiently coordinated. While the ban itself is welcomed, the human rights organization criticized that the ban was justified – among other reasons – by the fact that the now banned Islamist association had collected donations with the intention of "passing them on to terrorist associations abroad," including the Al-Nusra Front, the Syrian Al-Qaeda offshoot. "Thus, Interior Minister Seehofer should have coordinated better with Foreign Minister Maas and other ministries," stated Dr. Kamal Sido, the STP's Middle East Consultant. "…because the Foreign Office and other German authorities have – for years – been active in precisely those areas that are partly controlled by the 'Al-Nusra Front'. In the Syrian provinces of Idlib, Afrin, and other areas, however, the Al-Nusra Front is supported primarily by NATO member Turkey."

"The German government will not manage to dry up the terrorist's sources of funding as long as Turkey supports Islamist groups worldwide politically, diplomatically, financially, as well as with arms deliveries," Sido criticized, adding that – while the mullahs in Iran are controlling Shiite extremist groups all over the world – international Sunni Islamism is not primarily controlled by the Saudi royal family but Turkish President Erdogan. "Islamist mercenaries supported or directly paid by Turkey are now active in many regions. They are causing unrest and chaos in Syria, North Africa, and the South Caucasus," Sido explained. "They are driving out religious and ethnic minorities – Yazidis, Christians, Kurds, and Armenians – who do not fit the worldview of Erdogan and international Sunni Islamism."

Against this background, the STP repeated its demand to the German government to inform the Bundestag which groups in the Syrian civil war have been and are being financially supported by the German government. For example, it is common knowledge that the German government is still funding the "National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces". This political arm of Syria's armed Sunni Islamist groups is effectively a puppet of the Turkish president.