Turkish authorities on Tuesday detained 21 suspected members of far-left terror organizations and launched operations to capture 20 others linked to Daesh.
In the western coastal city of Izmir, police and gendarmerie forces detained 21 suspects accused of financing far-left terror groups, the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) and the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), which killed a civilian and injured several others, including police officers, in an attack on a courthouse in Istanbul earlier this month.
Security forces are still searching for the nine other suspects currently at large, authorities said.
The DHKP-C is listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union. The terrorist group pursues a far-left ideology and has been actively carrying out attacks and assassinations in the country since the 1980s, but its campaign of violence hit a snag when faced with Türkiye’s barrage of counterterrorism operations.
The DHKP-C’s most high-profile attacks include a suicide bombing that targeted the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Ankara, in 2013 and the killing of prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz. It was also responsible for the assassination of Özdemir Sabancı, a tycoon who was a member of the prominent business dynasty Sabancı, in 1996.
The group has become less active in the country in recent years but remains a major security threat.
In the capital, Ankara, the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued warrants for 20 suspects in an investigation into “Tevhid Magazine,” which it said was Daesh’s cover for its Ankara formation.
Türkiye has ramped up operations against Daesh terrorists after the group attacked an Istanbul Church last month, killing a civilian man during Sunday mass.
Daesh operates a so-called Khorasan Province (ISKP) network in Türkiye, which looks for new “methods” and recruits more foreign members for its activities after constant counterterrorism operations became a “challenge,” security sources say.
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 the church shooting.
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 as a terrorist group in 2013.
In December last year, Turkish security forces detained 32 suspects over alleged links with Daesh, who were planning attacks on churches and synagogues, as well as the Iraqi Embassy.
Daesh extremists have not previously targeted places of worship on Turkish soil, but they have carried out a string of attacks, including against a nightclub in Istanbul in 2017 that left 39 people dead and a 2015 bombing attack in Ankara that killed 109.
Turkish airstrikes also target Daesh hideouts in northern Iraq and Syria near the Turkish border.
