Special to WorldTribune.com

ANKARA — Islamic State of Iraq and Levant was believed to have established an operational presence in southern Turkey.

Kurdish sources said ISIL was operating in southern Turkey against refugees from Syria. They said ISIL squads were targeting Kurds, particularly refugees from Syria.

On Oct. 14, a man delivering Kurdish newspapers was ambushed and shot dead in Adana. The delivery man, Kadri Bagdu, was buried he following day in a funeral that turned into a demonstration against President Recep Erdogan.

“Erdogan, murderer,” thousands of Kurds chanted at the funeral.

Ugur Bayrak, a representative of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, said Bagdu was killed by ISIL. Bayrak said ISIL was recruiting around Adana for the anti-Kurdish campaign.

“It is certain that pro-ISIL gangs killed him,” Bayrak said.

Turkish police have launched an investigation into the killing. But Bayrak cast doubts on whether the police, deemed to be under Erdogan’s control, would make progress.

“Frankly, we don’t find them sincere,” Bayrak said.

On Oct. 17, another suspected ISIL supporter attacked Kurdish protesters in Antalya. Witnesses said the unidentified man took a sword from his motorcycle and rushed the Kurds. Hours later, the man was said to have been released.

Turkey’s parliamentary opposition has asserted that Erdogan was allowing ISIL to operate in Turkey. The main opposition Republican People’s Party raised the prospect that Erdogan ordered the release of three ISIL operatives in exchange for 46 Turkish hostages taken in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in June 2014.

In March 2014, Cendrim Ramadani, Mohammed Zakiri and Benjanin Xu were arrested and charged with killing two security officers. In 2014, the Erdogan-controlled parliament gave the intelligence community the authority to release convicts in a prisoner exchange.

“Have there been other exchanges that took place this year and with whom?” an opposition question to Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu asked.