Özgür Altun, one of the alleged leaders of the terrorist organization Daesh, was caught in a joint operation by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and Pakistan's intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Altun, who gave his statement at the prosecutor's office, was sent to the criminal court of peace with a request for his arrest for the crime of "establishing and managing an armed terrorist organization."
The prosecutor's office's referral letter said that Altun was a high-level official in the organization and used the code names "Ebu Yasir," "Hasan Han" and "Muhammet Han."
The letter reported that the suspect used applications such as "SimpleX," "Session," "Threema," "Teleguard" and "Roketchat" to not be exposed and noted that he directed those who wanted to join the organization after Daesh’s call to "open the migration gates" in 2023, and organized their passage to Khorasan province.
The letter explained that the suspect produced propaganda publications in the "Khorasan’s voice" magazine for people who sympathized with the organization and were looking for action to join the organization.
Altun, who was placed in the “orange” category of the most wanted terrorists list by the Interior Ministry, was identified through the work of MIT, which discovered a suspect of Turkish descent who organized crossings of Daesh recruits into Afghanistan and Pakistan from Europe and Central Asian countries. The suspect was the highest-ranking Daesh member of Turkish descent working in the group’s “media and logistics” branch and was also behind planning attacks against Türkiye and in crowded places in Europe, such as concert venues. Further intelligence work revealed that Altun was in charge of the “Turkish media” arm of the so-called Daesh Khorasan Province (Daesh-K) network, disseminating Turkish language propaganda for the group.
Altun illegally traveled to Afghanistan from Türkiye and was active in that country. MIT found that he was planning to cross into Pakistan and contacted ISI. ISI officials offered full support to MIT, underlining that Türkiye’s enemy was also Pakistan’s enemy, security sources said. ISI then launched a precision operation in cooperation with MIT and captured Altun on the border.
Since the 2019 collapse of the self-proclaimed “caliphate,” suspected Daesh members have settled in Türkiye, operating a so-called Khorasan Province (Daesh-K) network, which looks for “new methods” and recruits more foreign nationals for its activities after constant counterterrorism operations became a “challenge,” according to Turkish security sources.
The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) thwarted the terrorist group's efforts for recruitment, obtaining funds and logistics support after its latest operation in the aftermath of a church shooting in Istanbul in January 2024.
Daesh remains the second biggest threat of terrorism for Türkiye, which faces security risks from multiple terrorist groups and was one of the first countries to declare it a terrorist group in 2013.
