Nine foreign terrorist fighters with Belgian citizenship were deported, the Interior Ministry announced Wednesday, adding that the repatriation of foreign fighters continues.
As of Nov. 11, 2019, a total of 338 foreign terrorist fighters, with 113 of them carrying European Union, U.S. and Australian citizenships, were expelled from Turkey.
The issue of handling Daesh members and their families detained in Syria – including foreign members of the terror group – has been controversial, with Turkey arguing that foreign-born terrorists should be repatriated to their countries of origin.
Turkey has criticized Western countries for refusing to repatriate their citizens who joined Daesh in Syria and Iraq, as some of them have even stripped the terrorists of their citizenship. Although the 1961 New York Convention made it illegal to leave people stateless, several countries including France have not ratified it and recent cases have triggered prolonged legal battles.
Turkey recognized Daesh as a terrorist organization in 2013. Since then, the country has been attacked by Daesh terrorists numerous times, including 10 suicide bombings, seven bombings and four armed attacks, which killed 315 people and injured hundreds more.
In response, Turkey launched military and police operations at home and abroad to prevent further terrorist attacks.
Within this scope, four Russian nationals, who were sought by Interpol for alleged links to Daesh, were detained Wednesday in southeastern Turkey, a security source said.
Acting upon the information that the women suspects would illegally enter Turkey from Syria, anti-terror teams of the provincial gendarmerie command in Kilis province launched operation in coordination with the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, said the source who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
Taking measures at Turkey-Syria border in the village of Arpakesmez, the suspects were caught as they attempted to enter Turkey along with eight children.
The Daesh terrorist group held vast swaths of territory across Syria and Iraq from its rise in 2014 until its military defeat last year.
Daesh’s expansion in Iraq and Syria featured horrendous public abuses. Largely unseen but equally egregious were the widespread detentions and kidnappings by the terrorist organizations where thousands of people were snatched from their homes and cars and at checkpoints and subsequently went missing. The terrorist organization also frequently filmed its members executing the people it abducted or detained. Daesh systematically committed torture, rapes, forced marriages, extreme acts of ethnic cleansing, mass murder, genocide, robbery, extortion, smuggling, slavery, kidnappings and the use of child soldiers.