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Ankara-Islamic State story emerges between lines of Turkish report

A new report by Turkey’s Interior Ministry takes a kindly look at the country's fight against Islamic State.
TOPSHOT - A wreath reading "We will not forget" and a commemorative plaque are pictured during a memorial ceremony on June 28, 2017 at Ataturk International airport in Istanbul, one year since the triple suicide bombing and gun attack by Islamic State (IS) jihadists. 
Turkey on June 28 marked one year since the triple suicide bombing and gun attack on its main international airport in Istanbul that left dozens dead and was blamed on Islamic State (IS) jihadists.  / AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE        (Photo credit

Turkey’s Interior Ministry published a 76-page report this week that purports to document its fight against the Islamic State, part of an apparent effort to counter widespread if unjustified claims that it's doing the opposite: enabling the militants. The document’s publication coincided with a series of fresh raids on suspected IS terrorists across the country.

The first section of the report, which is accompanied by an English-language translation, rehashes the origins of the terror outfit and does little to enhance existing literature on the subject. There is also a whiff of spin in some of its references to IS depictions of Turks and their relationship to Islam as “heathens” and “apostates.” The report, by Turkey’s undeniably authoritarian government, declares, “They deem living and voting in a democratic country as infidelity.”

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