Turkey arrests four foreigners en route to Syria

Four Syria-bound foreign citizens were arrested on Wednesday in Gaziantep province, southeast Turkey, officials said.

The Gaziantep Governor's office said in a statement that a Russian citizen, identified as S.D., was arrested for trying to illegally cross the border into Syria and join the ongoing civil war in the country.

Three Saudi Arabian citizens, identified as A.H.A.A, F.S.S.Z. and H.A.H.A, were also arrested in the Karkamis District of the province for trying to illegally cross the border into Syria.

The Russian citizen was deported from Turkey, while the three Saudi Arabian citizens are awaiting to be deported once the administrative process is completed.

Turkey shares a 800 km long border with Syria, which is an attractive point for foreign fighters who want to join the war in Syria.

Turkish officials are cooperating with other countries' authorities to stop the flow of foreign fighters to Syria and Iraq.

Thousands of foreign fighters from all over the world are believed to have joined terrorist organizations, including Daesh, fighting in Syria and Iraq.

Turkish authorities has taken legal measures against 269 people, 45 of whom were jailed, for being members of a terrorist organization, according to a Gaziantep Governorate statement Wednesday.

They took administrative measures against 202 other suspects who tried to enter Syria during the last four years.

According to the statement, 269 people from 27 countries were charged with "being a member of a terrorist organization."

Forty-five of them were imprisoned and 49 others deported.

The nationalities of the 269 people who faced legal measures were: 173 from Turkey, 27 from Russia, nine from Germany, six from Kazakhstan, five from Eastern Turkistan, four from Tajikistan, three from Trinidad and Tobago, three from Uzbekistan, three Libyans, two each from Belgium, Tunisia, China, Italy and Azerbaijan as well as one person each from the Central Africa Republic, Bangladesh, Georgia, Morocco, France, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Egypt and Bahrain.

Also, 202 suspects from 34 countries faced administrative measures, including 165 people who were deported from the country.

The suspects' nationalities were: 37 Syrians, 32 Russians, 18 Indonesians, 12 from Eastern Turkistan, 12 South Africans, nine from Mauritius, seven from Austria, six each from Morocco, France, Jordan, five each from Libya and Uzbekistan, four each from Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, three each from Turkmenistan, Maldives, Venezuela and two each from Azerbaijan, Germany, Bosnia Herzegovina, Pakistan, Tunisia and Austria, Palestine, Nigeria, Canada, Iraq, Portugal, Tajikistan and Ukraine.