Turkey continues to take measures against the terrorist group and foreign fighters who seek to join the organization. At the most recent National Security Council (MGK) meeting, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu declared that additional security measures were discussed and they will work toward their implementation.
Turkey has been doing its part to identify and deliver potential foreign fighters seeking to cross the border to Syria to join ISIS, despite little cooperation in intelligence sharing from its Western allies. As part of Turkey's efforts, the police have tightened security at transfer points such as airports, terminals, bus stations and rental car companies with a special risk analysis system and a team has been tasked with tracking suspicious foreigners who travel to Turkey for the first time and those who are minors without hotel reservations.
Regarding accusations that Turkey's border security is inadequate, sources said Turkey shares a 1,300-kilometer border with Iraq and Syria and it is a challenge to control. Nevertheless, sources say the Turkish Land Forces Command patrols the land border 24 hours a day with drones and reconnaissance aircraft. It has also installed lights on a 270-kilometer stretch of the Syrian border, renewed a 1,210 kilometer patrol route, is digging 363 kilometers of trenches and building 90 kilometers of wire fences, 68 kilometers of embankments and 7 kilometers of concrete walls. Sources said more than 48,000 border crossings were intercepted and 175,000 people were caught since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
ISIS has recently released a video calling Turkish people to "conquer Istanbul and Turkey from the ones who cooperate with the West," while referring to President Erdoğan as "Satan" who allegedly sold the country to the U.S. and Western powers and harshly criticized him for supporting the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS.Speaking in Turkish, the unidentified ISIS terrorist says that it is necessary for the people of Turkey to rebel against the "atheists, crusaders and ‘Satans' who fool them and make them a slave to the crusaders" before it is too late.
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