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When a state engages with a jihadist group, the jihadist group, in exchange, infiltrates the state in question.
On July 30, World Grain reported that the International Grains Council (IGC) expected the world’s second biggest wheat exporter, Kazakhstan, to see a decline in wheat flour shipments to 2.3mn tonnes in 2021/22 from 2.5mn tonnes in 2020/21, due to “tighter than anticipated domestic supplies.” Kazakhstan expects its 2021 grain crop to contract by 24% to 15.3mn tonnes.
The Central Asia region has seen abnormally high temperatures over the last several weeks, with farmers across Kazakhstan continuing to report deaths of livestock and feed shortages amid severe drought.
On August 13, the secretary of the Iranian parliament’s agriculture committee said that the impact of severe drought means Iran will in the current Persian year (started March 21) have to import wheat after five years of self-sufficiency.
Kyrgyzstan has also been struggling with crop output this year. Neighbour Kazakhstan has delivered shipments to try and alleviate its difficulties.
Kyrgyzstan is the second poorest country in Central Asia, narrowly ahead of Tajikistan in terms of prosperity.
Drought is not good news for the Central Asia region as it is already emerging as a region threatened by the chaotic Afghanistan situation that could emerge following the takeover of the country by the Taliban fundamentalist insurgents.
2.2 Erdogan, US & jihadism business
The US has designated a Turkey-based Al-Qaeda financial facilitator for materially assisting the terrorist organisation along with a Syria-based terrorist fundraiser and recruiter for providing material support to Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), a group linked with Al-Qaeda, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a written statement on July 28.
Hasan Al-Shaban, the “Turkey-based Al-Qaeda financial facilitator”, coordinates the transferring of Al-Qaeda funds from North Africa, Western Europe and North America to Turkey, the US Treasury said in a separate statement.
Shaban is based in Sahinbey town of Turkey’s Gaziantep province, located on the border with Syria, according to the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The willingness of HTS, an extremist jihadist coalition, to confront al-Qaeda-linked groups such as Hurras al-Din (HAD), its victories against the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) and its strong influence over dynamics on the ground in the Idlib zone, could lead the West to work with HTS in a process similar to how it engaged with the Taliban, a report entitled “Security Scenarios for Syria in 2021-2022” by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy noted in July.
2.3 Turkish killer drones made with many US parts
Bayraktar TB2 drones, used in the Nagorno-Karabakh War, mainly use components manufactured outside Turkey:
• Bomb rack units for drones with high-precision bombs by UK company EDO
12 TURKEY Country Report September 2021 www.intellinews.com