Turkish forces detained 89 suspects who had ties to Daesh terrorist organisations during nationwide operations, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said. The operations took place in provinces of Antalya, Batman, Denizli, Elazığ, Eskişehir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Istanbul, Kahramanmaraş, Kırıkkale, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Sakarya, Şanlıurfa, Van and Yozgat.
The suspects face charges of belonging to the terror group, Yerlikaya stated.
“We uninterruptedly continue our operations against terrorist organisations to ensure the peace and stability of our people,”
he continued. Turkish officials have vigorously pursued Daesh cells with operations labeled “Gürz,” arresting at least 943 suspects in 2024 alone.
Following the 2019 downfall of the so-called “caliphate,” some suspected Daesh members have taken refuge in Türkiye, running a so-called Khorasan Province (Daesh-K) network, which seeks “new methods” and recruits additional foreign nationals for its operations after repeated
counterterrorism efforts became a “challenge,” Turkish security sources say.
The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) intercepted the recruitment activities of the terrorist organisation, getting money and support in material resources after its latest operation after a church shooting in Istanbul in January.
Turkish authorities announced that more than 3,600 people with suspected links to the terror organisation have been taken into custody since June 2023. Daesh remains the second biggest threat of terror against Türkiye, which is vulnerable to security risks by many terrorist organisations and was among the first countries to ban it as a terrorist organisation in 2013.
Türkiye is moving cautiously to prevent Daesh/ISIS and PKK terrorists from taking advantage of the situation in post-Assad regime Syria. Throughout the more than decade-long Syrian civil war, both of these terrorist organisations have taken advantage of the absence of an effective government to have free rein, with the PKK/YPG wanting to create a terrorist corridor on the border with Türkiye, and Turkish forces stationed to stop that threat.
Turkish foreign minintger tended to emphasize that Turkish officials are in communication with their US counterparts, Fidan called on all regional and international actors to behave calmly and cautiously, since the region should not be pulled into additional instability.
Emphasising that Türkiye attaches great significance to Syria’s national unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, he said the Syrian state institutions should be preserved and the opposition forces should unite immediately.
Syrians will design their country’s future, he declared, noting that tens of thousands of Syrians were forced to flee from their country during the long civil war and are now able to return.
Saying that Türkiye will also continue to cooperate with the new leadership of Syria, using everything it possesses in coordination with regional neighbors for rebuilding the country, He declared that they have no news on the whereabouts of deposed Syrian President Bashar Assad, noting that he could be overseas.
Since the capital city of Damascus was taken over by anti-regime forces, there have been reports that Assad escaped, but nothing has been verified.
