June 2019:
Kamal Oskan and Adam Al-Hussein
After the formation of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (the transitional government headed by Ahmed Touma on 11/11/2013, a Syrian alternative passport was issued, or what is known as the Coalition passport issued by the Syrian Interim Government. This decision was based on what the Coalition describes as the European Union (“EU”) recognition of it as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people. In fact, the preamble to the contract concluded between the Coalition and the Slovenian company states that “the EU considers the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces to be the legitimate representative of the aspirations of the Syrian people.”
Alternative passports issued by the Coalition were granted to tens of thousands of Syrians outside the country – especially in Turkey – who were denied access to passports by the Syrian consulates for political or security reasons. However, this passport, that was obtained in Turkey or in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, was a reason of suffering for many, because it was considered a forgery.
The passport issued by the Coalition is a passport that is identical to the official Syrian passport granted by the Syrian regime, in its form, duration, and method of renewal. It has official signatures and seals issued by Immigration and Passports Departments in some cities and provinces that were controlled by the armed opposition, thereby seizing all its records and seals. However, these passports are considered forged passports, bearing no reference to the party that issued them, which is the Syrian Interim Government, and since they did not receive recognition and legal legitimacy from any country, even from the Group of Friends of the Syrian People[1] that was founded in 2012 to support opposition to the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Passports war and legitimacy gain
The expansion of the armed conflict to wrest military control over Syrian city centers and towns, and the influx of refugees into Turkey, have been accompanied by another multifaceted battle in which both the opposition and the Syrian regime are trying by all means to delegitimize the other. Passports were one of those battlefields. This was exemplified by the decision of the Syrian Opposition Coalition to issue the alternative passport after the establishment of the interim government in Turkey, and specifically following the strict measures taken by the Syrian regime against its political opponents and army defectors depriving them of documentation. Not only has the Syrian regime done so, but it has enacted tougher measures to further constrain anyone who opposes it, such as publicizing the passport numbers of some dissidents and activists, who had previously been able to obtain them systematically from Syrian consulates, to be construed as stolen passports.
The regime felt the gravity of what was happening when the coalition issued the passports in August 2014. It considered this step as a derogation of its sovereignty and therefore took a set of legal measures that were enumerated in detail in the first part of the investigation, and eased procedures on the issue of obtaining documentation in a step to undercut the coalition’s issuance of passports.
A crime prescribed by law
We asked the competent authorities about the legality of issuing a passport by the interim government, which has not been recognized by any country, and they unanimously agreed on the illegality of these passports, describing what this government has done as a crime.
Lawyer Ghazwan Kronfol, a former president of the Free Syrian Lawyers Association (“FSLA”), explains the matter saying: “The Syrian interim government does not have the authority to issue travel documents, it is not an internationally recognized government as a legal representative of the Syrian people (or even for a part of it), and the regime is still the legal representative of the Syrian state, representing it in regional and international organizations. Therefore, that government is more like a political entity that called itself an interim government and entrusted itself with the duties of providing (limited) services, within areas outside of the regime’s control. He further explained that “the interim government’s move represents a composite crime, as it is an assault on state authority, as well as a crime for issuing forged documents from a party that does not have the right and authority to do so.”
To be detained and losing money in exchange for a forged passport
Those who faced harm because of this passport issued by the Coalition are many. The damage ranged from the loss of the money paid for obtaining this document, without the person benefiting from it at all, to those who were arrested in Turkey’s airports and detained for months, while some of them were deported to Syria for using this passport.
Haitham suffered two months of detention inside the Istanbul Airport Police Station and the Detention Center of the Foreigners Division in Gaziantep. His arrest was not a result of a crime or a wrongdoing he committed, but because he held a passport issued by the Syrian interim government – established by the National Coalition of Syrian Opposition and Revolution Forces in Turkey – that the coalition began issuing in August 2014.
On 01/21/2017, Haitham (32) from the Syrian city of Amuda, who has been residing in Turkey since 10 years, headed from Istanbul airport to Beirut and he was sure that everything was fine. At Beirut airport, he was arrested and sent back to Istanbul again due to the Lebanese government’s non recognition of the passports issued by the Syrian opposition government and the absence of Turkey’s entry stamp while the passport indicated that it was issued from inside Syria.
At Ataturk Airport, Haitham began a new but different kind of journey, a journey of suffering due to investigations and searches by several security agencies in the airport prison, until he was released from prison, and returned to work following a lawsuit filed by his employer’s lawyer.
There are no exact figures or official statistics when it comes to the number of people arrested by the Turkish authorities as a result of passports issued by the Coalition, and the measures taken against them ranged from the destruction of the passport to deportation.
Syrian lawyer and legal adviser Majd al-Tabbaa, an employee of the Bilatin Arab Turkish Legal Foundation, which is based in Istanbul and which follows up on the cases of Syrians arrested for holding forged passports and for other cases, reveals that “the number of people facing forgery cases due to passports issued by the Syrian National Coalition exceeded 315 cases in Istanbul alone during 2017.” He adds: “The penalty at first was the destruction of the passport by Turkish agents. Later, a number of detainees faced the penalty of deportation, and at present a detainee faces a forgery charge and would be arrested in the central prison in Maltepe in Istanbul, thereafter the file is transferred to the Public Prosecution and then submitted to the Criminal Court.”
As for the number of deportees, Majd explained that there were 109 people who were deported in 2017, mainly from Istanbul airports.
Al Tabbaa, who is in charge of following up on Ibrahim’s case from Daraa, recounts the details of his arrest at Ataturk Airport before leaving for Beirut in mid-November 2017 over the accusation of carrying a forged passport, that was issued by the coalition, as Ibrahim decided to travel to Beirut to meet his family, whom he had not seen for more than 3 years since he left Syria to escape military service.
Al Tabbaa added that “a decision was issued to deport him and he remained detained at the airport. And fortunately, he had given legal power of attorney to his lawyer for another matter, so we benefited from it and appealed the deportation decision under which he would be denied 5 years of entry to Turkey. We also filed an administrative grievance claim, and he was released on bail within 45 days.”
”The majority of the detainees within the Foreigners Division in Gaziantep were Syrians. And every 15 days, about 20 people were deported to Syria, and I was one of them, and they sent me back from midway upon request from the court,” Haitham said.
Issuance of passports without obtaining recognition
The Syrian Opposition Coalition mandated the head of the interim government Ahmed Touma, the Minister of Finance Ibrahim Miro, and the Coalition member, Mohammed Nazir al-Hakim, who was later elected secretary-general of the National Coalition of Syrian Opposition Forces and Revolution, to issue the alternative passport on behalf of the interim government, with the draft passports to be fully received by Nazir al-Hakim, the godfather of the project, on 3/18/2014 (document No. 1).
According to the documents and correspondence (document No. 2) between the Prime Minister, Mohamed Nazir Al-Hakim, and Ibrahim Miro, the minister of Finance, that we were able to obtain, it became apparent that the project will be funded, in part by the assistance provided by the State of Qatar on 1/22/2014, estimated at EUR[2] 50 million, and the other part was withdrawn from the emergency reserve and salaries allocated to the Civil Defense (Document No. 3).
The project was approved through the establishment of a company, managed by Mohamed Nazir Al-Hakim under the name of Entexıt Syr Dış Ticaret Limited Şirketi, in the Turkish city of Istanbul on 18-06-2014 with a capital of TRY[3] 100,000 – equivalent to USD 45,000 – and with an official authorization signed by the Prime Minister to pursue the file of alternative passports.
The Syrian interim government signed with the Slovenian company d.d. CETIS, which is one of the leading European companies in the field of print-related products and services, a contract (document No. 4) in order to print one million copies of alternative passports that cost EUR 2 million and 400 thousand. Moreover, shipping and customs expenses increased the total cost amount to approximately USD 3 million, on 6/15/2014, provided that the “goods” will be delivered and shipped to Gaziantep airport in Turkey in five installments, 200 thousand passports every 8 weeks in accordance with the annex of the contract concluded between the parties. A USD 997,000 was transferred in the first installment of the agreed amount to the Slovenian company via a bank transfer on 7/17/2014, according to the attached receipt. This meant that the Turkish government was aware of the details of the deal between the interim government and the Slovenian company as the money transfers were effectuated through Turkey’s banks and the passports were shipped through Gaziantep airport.
The first batch of passports was handed over two months after the signing of the contract, on 8/15/2014, and the Syrian interim government began issuing them to citizens. During a meeting with civil society organizations, called for by Civilians for Justice and Peace (“CJP”)[4] in mid-May 2017 in Istanbul, Nazir al-Hakim stated that 33,000 passports had been distributed.
The Coalition disavows and the Syrian government files complaint with the Interpol
The Turkish government, which had previously turned a blind eye to the existence of illegal documents held by Syrians at the beginning of the Syrian crisis, including passports issued by the Coalition, changed position. Cases of arrests of Syrian citizens holding these passports began to recur, which prompted the Coalition to close its office that was dedicated to dealing with passport applicants in Istanbul, in Reyhanli and Gaziantep, at the end of 2015, and access to passports was only obtained through agents deployed in Turkish provinces and neighboring countries.
Some analysts believe that the change in the position of the Turkish government was prompted by the EU’s desire to stop the flow of Syrian refugees to Europe. The flow witnessed its peak in 2015 and pushed the European Union to conclude a refugee agreement with Turkey in March 2016, that required the closure of the border in exchange for USD 6 billion paid by the EU to keep Syrian refugees therein.
This was preceded by a request by the European countries to tighten checks at the external borders of the Union to verify the authenticity of Syrian passports after the bombings that took place in Paris on November 13, 2015, near the Stade de France in Saint-Denis where two forged Syrian passports were found next to the suicide bombers who blew themselves up.
In a letter by the French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve published by Agence France Presse (“AFP”) on December 28, 2015, in which he asks the EU in Brussels to improve vetting procedures at its external borders, he also asked Brussels to “draw the attention” of Turkey to the matter as “Syrian passports were being trafficked.”
Publicization of figures
The Syrian regime publicized the Syrian passport numbers with the Interpol, declaring them stolen and as mostly belonging to dissidents or activists, aiming to prosecute their holders. This resulted in further scrutiny of Syrian passports at Turkish airports, in Cyprus, and in Lebanon, especially after several countries requested Turkey to do so. Thus, the acceptance of the Coalition passport at Turkish government departments and banks ceased, as well as any other procedures that require the handling of a passport. Moreover, the Turkish authorities began to arrest all those who held these passports issued by the Coalition.
What happened with Rudy at Cyprus airport may exemplify what has been happening with everyone who holds a passport from the Syrian Opposition Coalition, with the exception of some whose stories have not been discovered and who have been able to travel with these passports.
Rudi (a 28 year old from the city of Aleppo), who resides in the Turkish city of Aintapp, had obtained the Coalition passport from the city of Gaziantep on 10/16/2015 – valid for two years. But, he wanted to obtain a tourist residence permit instead of the temporary protection card he carried, known as “Kamlik” in Turkey, however, obtaining residency requires a valid passport stamped with a regular Turkey’s entry stamp from one of the crossing points or airports.
Rudy decided to travel to Cyprus in mid-2016 with a group of his friends in order to have their passports stamped legally, and they booked a hotel for three days and a round trip flight.
At the Cyprus airport they did not allow them to enter Cyprus but took them to the airport prison to verify their passports. Rudy said, “despite our contestation, myself and some of my friends, we were arrested for more than 12 hours, and then returned to Turkey without stamping our passports.”
The Coalition tried to disavow the project, and its members began publishing conflicting statements in the media and social media about the Coalition’s non-involvement in issuing the alternative passport, while some said it was issued with the consent of a small group without any consultation from the legal committee, according to a statement by Haitham al-Maleh, head of the Coalition’s legal committee, on his Facebook page on January 18, 2019. Fouad Aliko, a member of the Kurdish National Council in the Coalition’s political corps, confirmed to the investigation team that “the subject of passports was not discussed with the Kurdish National Council within the Coalition, and that the Council has nothing to do with the passports issued by the Coalition, and this may have been done with a member of the National Council in a personal capacity, and that the council does not have any information about it.”
This disparity of statements is reflected in a tweet by Ahmed Ramadan on May 12, 2017, a member of the political body and head of the media department of the Syrian National Coalition, underscoring the Turkish judiciary’s non-criminalization of Syrian opposition passport holders.
The response came from former Coalition chairman Khalid Khoja, in a tweet the following day, in which he said that “the opposition does not have passports, but there exists fraudulent networks, and the Syrian who holds the fake passport is not criminalized by the judiciary at all. However, the ban on entry or departure is in place.”
We tried to contact Ramadan to inquire apropos the Coalition’s issuance of alternative passports and the position of the Turkish authorities regarding the matter, but he declined to answer our questions.
Dr. Imad al-Din al-Mosbeh, a Syrian opposition academic, commented, “I can say that the money sums that members of the interim government are expected to have received can be considered a part of corruption schemes that were committed against the helpless Syrian people. Of course, we don’t have the evidence to embrace the idea of corruption.” But going back to Nazir al-Hakim’s company, the document we had been able to obtain proves that it was issued by the interim Syrian government (document No. 5).
However, the head of the Immigration and Passports Branch in Damascus, Colonel Fawaz Al-Ahmad, confirmed in a statement to the Russian media outlet “Sputnik” on 7/24/2017, that Syria has submitted an official complaint to the United Nations and Interpol in this regard, and had previously provided the numbers for the stolen passports to Interpol to pursue the holders of these passports, whose numbers were made public.
Where did the money go?
According to the contract signed between the government represented by the Ministry of Finance, and the company of Mohamed Nazir Al-Hakim and the Slovenian company (d.d. CETIS), the funds were transferred in two installments. The first one was estimated at USD 1 million in cash, which entered into Mohamed Nazir Al-Hakim’s company bank account at Türkiye Finans bank , and was thereafter transferred to the Slovenian company on 7/17/2014, according to the emails and invoices circulated between Mohamed Nazir Al-Hakim, Ibrahim Miro, and Imad Barakat, General Manager of Central Accounts (document 6) . And we were able to obtain copies of the mentioned mails and invoices.
Miro refused to sign the second installment following the Coalition’s decision to withdraw confidence from the interim government, headed by Ahmed Touma, by a majority of 66 votes during the General Assembly meeting on July 20 and 21, 2014, and to entrust the government with caretaker work until the completion of the formation of a new government. According to sources from within the government, Miro refused to sign the second installment until he was officially appointed a Minister of Finance within the new formation, and indeed, Tohme Miro was tasked with running the affairs of the Ministry of Finance and Economy consistent with Resolution 99 on 2/12/2014. (Document No. 7)
A total amount of EUR 2 million and 400 thousand was paid to the Slovenian company, a part of which was subtracted from the emergency reserve, according to one of the documents signed by Minister Miró, whereas the other part was paid from the grant provided by Qatar.
To confirm this, we tried to contact the Slovenian company d.d. CETIS to find out the merits of the matter and inquire whether the company has the right to print this type of security documents for an internationally unrecognized entity. We wanted to confirm that the company knows that what was printed as part of the Syrian passport’s arrangement, are passports whose holders are arrested at airports, and whether the printing company’s executives have any information about the completion of the said project in its entirety – that is, one million passports. And did the company receive its financial dues in accordance with the contract concluded between it and the Syrian Opposition Coalition?
Despite our successive attempts to communicate with CEO Roman Žnidarič, who is in charge of security printing at the company, he did not reply to us.
Assuming that the alternative passport project was devised and executed, as part of the Syrian chaotic conditions and of leaving the doors for questions open, where did the money earned from the sale of 33,000 passports go ( according to Nazir al-Hakim), knowing that the price of the passport’s issuance by the Tohme government was set at USD 200 for slow transactions, USD 400 for fast-track transactions, and USD100 for renewal stickers?
Economist Ahmed Youssef believes that those who plotted the passport project conducted accurate calculations with some of mafia mentality people, proving that the project has great economic feasibility! Youssef adds: “Taking such a step through a private company, which is established for this purpose, only falls into the category of pursuit of illegal sources of income, as the cost of one copy of the alternative passport does not exceed 3 US dollars and is sold at an average price of USD 300 per copy, which means that it has generated revenues exceeding USD 10 million.”
[2] EURO
[3] Turkish lira
Investigative Reports
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