indigenous minors ‘kidnapped’ and converted to Islam

Behind the trafficking of dozens of children and young people is the Süleymancılar sect, which, according to some reports, had the protection of the government and the AKP. At least six young people from remote jungle regions were first brought to Manaus and later transferred abroad, to the association’s headquarters in Turkey. Child abuse increased 700% under “Sultan” Erdogan.

Milan () – A direct line connects the Amazon with Türkiye. A trafficking of minors who are taken from their families – often destitute and unable to support them or offer them growth prospects – to take them out of the country and take them to the former Ottoman Empire where, under the pretext of educating them, they are indoctrinated and converted to Islam. The police opened an investigation – which is still ongoing – into the case, confirmed by sources in Manaus, who call for “prudence” and “omit for the moment the names of the people involved”, pending judicial proceedings. and penalties. At the center of the investigations is the Süleymancılar association -related to Turkish Islam and which is present in several countries- with a radical vision of faith, contrary to the secularism of the State, and whose objective is to penetrate -and influence- the family life according to Muslim precepts.

What lifted the veil on this long-standing practice was an in-depth investigation carried out by the Turkish diaspora information site Artı Gerçek, a voice critical of the Ankara government and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, founded in 2017 by exiled journalists. The site’s main objective is to “publish news” that in their country would be “victims of censorship” and “give voice to groups, religions and minorities” marginalized or persecuted in the “sultan’s” country. This is a controversial and delicate case, because it involves “minors subjected to abuse, trafficking and rape”, confirms our source, and that it is fueled by a pro-Islamic entity that has already been the subject of complaints in the past but had the protection of the upper echelons of Turkey.

seduced and converted

A Turkish citizen who has lived in the Amazon for a long time and has been the beneficiary of a residence permit issued by Brasilia since June 2021, reportedly recruited dozens of children from poor families from jungle tribes on behalf of the Süleymancılar sect. The reference area is the border with Colombia, but the operational headquarters is Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonia, where the children are taken with a “consent” signed by the family to receive the first notions of their “new educational model”. After spending three years in Brazil, at least 6 were transferred to Turkey and housed in centers owned by the sect or linked to it in Kütahya, Tarsus or Istanbul (where abuses against minors had already occurred) to continue “their educational process school” and finally be converted to Islam.

The Turkish trafficker allegedly acted through a company he founded himself, the Amazon Humanitarian Aid Solidarity Association, which, under the guise of helping and supporting development, established links with families and earned their trust so that they would entrust their children. All of this would also have been aided by the parents’ wish or hope that the children would have a better future and allow them to escape life in the jungle and receive an education, with the possibility of attending school and attaining a future. higher level of education that would otherwise be impossible for them. After spending time in Manaus, the boys are renamed “Turkish and Muslim” like Muhammad, Hüseyin, Ahmet. The education is also Turkish, Arabic and Islamic, and is given to the little pupils between the ages of 5 and 17. For some – in this case between the ages of 15 and 17 – the final step is the transfer to Turkey with an “education visa” issued by the same Ankara embassy in Brazil.

Trafficked to Türkiye

Once in Turkey, the indigenous Brazilians get lost in the cities where there are headquarters or subsidiaries of Süleymancılar. The investigation shows that the young people from the Amazon were taken to the Mekân Ortadoğu men’s residence in Tarsus, whose head of the center did not want to give his personal information and attacked the journalists who carried out the investigation. “Why – she claimed, referring to religion – do they persecute children who have taken the path of the prophet Allah? Mind your business…” He then added that “they came to Turkey for education, their families also gave permission […] they are no longer in the center and I don’t know where they are.” Faced with the prospect of being accused of international trafficking in minors and deceiving their families (the crime being investigated by the Brazilian police), he cut his losses saying that they had been transferred to an Islamic solidarity association called Mena, in Istanbul.

Among those who have erected a wall of silence and complicity is the Turkish embassy in Brazil, which does not want to comment on the story and does not answer questions from journalists, neither Turkish nor Brazilian. As explained by the Brazilian journalist Thalys Alcantara, quoted by Artı Gerçek, the children belong to Amazonian peoples whose culture and lifestyle “are protected by Brazilian law”, within the framework of a policy of conservation of indigenous tribes and regions. “Young people – she explains – come from a city [que nuestra fuente pide mantener en secreto, ndr] in the state of Amazonia, located in the middle of the tropical jungle” from where they were taken in 2019 after the parents “signed documents that have no legal validity”. The families “are poor and dream of a better future”, the children “They have few opportunities to learn to read and overcome poverty.” sources confirm, Islamic groups have taken advantage of the destitution of local populations, who have become “targets” of child trafficking, kidnapped and converted 20 of these children had better luck, and were found by the police and returned to their families.

Suleymancilar and sexual abuse

At the center of this international traffic is the Süleymancılar association, which for years has been the protagonist of opaque acts with abuse and rape, including minors. In November 2020, a family from Istanbul filed a complaint against the organizers of a Quran course after his son witnessed sexual assaults inside the center and in the dormitories with her own eyes. The organizers belonged to the controversial sect and were not new to this type of event, and in the face of complaints from the parents, one of those responsible stated that what happened “was not such a big deal” and in any case “did not deserve a complaint and arm a scandal”. At the time, the family’s lawyer had stressed that, for the organization in question, the case of violence is “just the tip of an iceberg” made up of abuse, rape and exploitation, with the consent of the State.

And the figures confirm the emergency: violence against minors has increased by 700% under the AKP (Justice and Development Party) governments of President Erdogan, and in many cases the investigations ended with impunity for the perpetrators. In 2018 alone, almost a dozen cases came to light in the residences of Süleymancılar, who is also known for his relations with the highest echelons of the Executive. The country ranks 38th in the world in rapes (15.6 per 100,000 inhabitants) and 45th in femicides (0.88 per 100,000). In 2018 Turkey ranked third in the world in child abuse, and almost 500,000 girls under the age of 18 were married with the “permission” of the state; between 2007 and 2017 in pregnancies of girls aged 17 and under, more than 2,400 babies were stillborn. The HDP and CHP submitted dozens of parliamentary proposals for the prevention of sexual abuse and violence, all of which were quickly rejected by the AKP. Today is the UN World Refugee Day: “We hope – concludes the source – that exploitation will be stopped at the root for the sake of these minors, who are lured with false promises that are always at the base Finally, what has happened is also a warning to the Brazilian Church and the whole world, so that it becomes more and more aware of the pastoral care of minors and contributes to the prevention of possible violence”.

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