Balkan media accuse Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) to support radical islamic network

According to the Serbian Televizija Republike Srpske - a Bosnian entity level public mainstream TV - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s wife, is the patron of the weightiest humanitarian organization: Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH).

IHH is a radical Islamic organization, established in 1992 by a member of the Turkish Refah Party and formally registered in Istanbul in 1995. Besides its legitimate humanitarian activities, IHH supports radical Islamic networks. In recent years, it has prominently supported Hamas (through the Union of Good).

In addition, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) has reliable information that in the past IHH provided logistical support and funding to global jihad networks.

The Balkans, and specifically the western portion of them with Bosnia and Herzegovina, has become a major recruitment base for ISIS due to their high rates of unemployment and the growing size of marginalized sectors of society.

The Balkans is strategically important for ISIL as they serve as a major transit zone for foreign recruits to ISIL from various parts of the world. The Balkans are also important for ISIL for movements in the opposite direction, it is a transit point for operatives into Western Europe and a staging point for terrorist operations.

Bosnian Jihadists Have Two Passports

According Bosnian newspaper Glas Srpske well known Jihadist Osman Kekic, also known in the Balkans as Abdul Aziz, arrived in Sweden with a newly issued passport of Bosnia and Herzegovina despite the fact that he had his previous passport confiscated in last February.

Kekic is not the only jihadist with two passports.

Another Wahhabi leader, Nusret Imamovic currently in Syria, managed to have two passports as well.

A list of persons and organizations subject to sanctions which the UN Security Council recently released includes Imamovic's name. He is said to have two Bosnia and Herzegovina passports. In one, his date of birth is given as 26 September 1971 and in the other as 26 September 1977, while the passport numbers differ in only one digit.

The number of one passport is 349054 while the other is 3490054. In September 2015, Imamovic was at an address in Syria from where he last communicated in February of this year. According a UN document He has been fighting at the head of a Jabhat Al-Nusra unit since April 2015.

Last week, Kekic was arrested in Sweden, at the airport in Malmo, where he arrived from Tuzla despite the fact that his passport had been confiscated after Turkey extradited him to Bosnia and Herzegovina in February following several failed attempts to cross into Syria to fight there.

Swedish border police became suspicious of him as he appeared nervous and kept changing the line while waiting at the passport control to have his passport, issued to him in March, checked.


Kekic and Imamovic cases are under the investigation of the Ministry of Security, the Prosecutor's Office, the Intelligence and Security Agency (OBA), and the Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA).

Salafi Organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina Have Found New Sources of Financing

(June 27, 2016) - Bosnia and Herzegovina's Intelligence suspect that Salafi organizations active in Bosnia and Herzegovina have found new sources of financing their activities.

There are informations that such organizations in Sarajevo and beyond are not prepared to give up their intense ideological and propaganda activity.

According to a confidential dossier seen by Nezavisne Novine, the headquarters of one of the most active such organization is in Ramiz Salcin Street in Sarajevo.

As noted, the organization has been in existence since 2013, but had not been known to be very active. However, it has all changed in the mean time.

"This organization brings together exclusively female members. Some of the best known Salafi preachers have of late delivered lectures there," the detailed dossier says.

As the informations further states, at the end of August last year this Salafi organization arranged a trip for its members to Mt. Bjelasnica, more specifically to a mountain lodge in Javor Valley which has become a frequent venue for Salafi gatherings.

"The participants are bussed free to the venue and the organization also provides free child care during the courses," informations reveals.

It is stated in the documents in conclusion that the Salafi movement in Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to operate and that as regards global developments, it publicly disowns ISIL, while at the same time it operates outside the jurisdiction of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina as it develops its own structures.

"The activation of the previously passive groups, as well as the activities such as free transportation, child care, trips and the like, point to the possibility that there they have new sources of funding to support these activities," it is stated in the dossier.

According to police findings, in addition to Sarajevo, these Salafi organizations carry out increasingly intense propaganda activities in other major urban centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including Zenica, Tuzla and Mostar.

It is further stated that the Salafis have two leaders both of whom are believed to be associated with persons and organizations deemed to be of interest in terms of security, but who have themselves been suspected of the activities also deemed interesting in terms of security.

"For instance, this refers to the participation in organizing and encouraging recruits for Syria and other war zones," the informations reveal.

Police therefore recommend further monitoring and scrutiny of the activities of Salafi organizations and their leading authorities.

Bosnia Herzegovinan newspaper Nezavisne Novine has previously published many details about a Wahhabi stronghold bigger than the notorious Gornja Maoca near Srebrenik is taking root in the vicinity of Cazin.