On Jan 1, news broke that a big rig was stopped in the city of Hatay en route to Syria. Initially the focus of the news was on the Turkey’s Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), but savvy observers quickly realized the involvement of the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) was the real news. Different sources confirmed that MIT personnel were accompanying the big rig and that they had prevented a police search. Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse deserves credit for accomplishing the difficult task of explaining the complexities of embedded false news, conspiracy theories and facts succinctly of the big rig scandal and other issues on Turkish-Syrian border.

While many pundits have focused on whether foundations such as the IHH are overstepping their boundaries from humanitarian to lethal aid in the Middle East, I have been struggling to understand how the MIT ended up in the midst of this crisis. Observers of Turkish politics cannot miss that since the start of the Syrian civil war in mid-2011, the MIT’s powers have expanded, so much so that many argue the MIT now is in a position to dominate the foreign and defense ministries in Turkey. Careful followers of Erdogan also realize that while talking about Syria, his focus has shifted from the Turkish Foreign Ministry to the MIT. Intriguingly, despite multiple military crisis and terror attacks from the Syrian border, we fail to find crucial statements from the General Staff or the defense minister in the news. One exception perhaps was when Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz explained that the arms sent to Syria were for hunting sports, not for rebels. Since Turkish arms transfers have been registered by the Turkish Statistics Institution (TUIK) and United Nations records, on Jan. 7 Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu formally accepted Turkish arms shipments, exclusively to help Turkmen in Syria.

Considering the negative reaction from both domestic and international audiences against alleged Turkish support for jihadist networks, the newfound excuse of saving the Turkmen has been the most recent “news” from the Turkish Foreign Ministry. On this point, W. Andrew Terrill, research professor at the US Army War College, told Al-Monitor, “The US government and public does not want to expand US activities in supporting parties to the Syrian civil war but is also concerned about the outcome of that war. In this environment, Washington would naturally be pleased to have what it views as a constructive Turkish agenda help to close this gap. Reports that MIT is unfriendly to US priorities therefore raise US concerns at a particularly sensitive time.”

The rather pragmatic upper echelons of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) are fully aware that any news suggesting the MIT is aiding any al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria would utterly harm their interests.