Turkey Arrests 15 Iraqis, One Syrian Over Suspected ISIS Links

A security raid on ISIS elements in Turkey
A security raid on ISIS elements in Turkey
TT

Turkey Arrests 15 Iraqis, One Syrian Over Suspected ISIS Links

A security raid on ISIS elements in Turkey
A security raid on ISIS elements in Turkey

Turkish security forces arrested Friday 16 foreigners in the Black Sea province of Samsun with suspected links to the ISIS terrorist organization.

Security sources said that anti-terror teams carried out simultaneous operations to arrest the suspects in the districts of Ilkadim and Atakum in northern Turkey.

The suspects included 15 Iraqi nationals and one Syrian and proved to be active among ISIS ranks. The security sources said they possessed digital materials that promoted the ideology of the terror group.

On Thursday, the anti-terror teams in western Kutahya province arrested four ISIS suspects, whose names were listed as members of terror groups in a document seized in Syria's northeastern Hassakah province in 2018.

Last week, security forces in Istanbul arrested 14 people with suspected links to the extremist organization.

The suspects included 13 foreign nationals, some of whom are suspected of being active in Syria.

The Istanbul Police Department said in a statement that the 14 suspects were arrested at 20 different venues in simultaneous anti-terror operations by police and intelligence teams.

Since 2015, ISIS has claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist operations, in which more than 300 people were killed and hundreds others were injured.

Those operations include at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks, and four armed attacks.

Turkish security services have been carrying out ongoing campaigns against the organizations’ cells, arresting more than 5,000 of its members.

Over the past five years, more than 3,000 others have been deported.

Turkey launched the campaign to deport foreign fighters in November 2019, after the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a US raid in Idlib earlier in October.



Türkiye Ousts 3 Elected Pro-Kurdish Mayors from Office and Replaces Them with State Officials

People walk in downtown Diyarbakir, southeastern Türkiye, November 1, 2024. (Reuters)
People walk in downtown Diyarbakir, southeastern Türkiye, November 1, 2024. (Reuters)
TT

Türkiye Ousts 3 Elected Pro-Kurdish Mayors from Office and Replaces Them with State Officials

People walk in downtown Diyarbakir, southeastern Türkiye, November 1, 2024. (Reuters)
People walk in downtown Diyarbakir, southeastern Türkiye, November 1, 2024. (Reuters)

Türkiye on Monday removed three elected pro-Kurdish mayors from office over terrorism-related charges and replaced them with state-appointed officials, the Interior Ministry said.

The move, which comes days after the arrest and ouster from office of a mayor from the country's main opposition party for his alleged links to a banned Kurdish armed group, is seen as a hardening of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government’s policies toward the opposition.

It also raises questions about the prospects of a tentative new peace effort to end a 40-year conflict between the group and the state that has led to tens of thousands of deaths.

The mayors of the mainly Kurdish-populated provincial capitals of Mardin and Batman, as well as the district mayor for Halfeti, in Sanliurfa province, were ousted from office over their past convictions or ongoing trials and investigations for links to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, according to an Interior Ministry statement.

The mayors are members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, which is the third-largest party represented in Parliament. They were elected to office in local elections in March.

Last month, the leader of the far-right nationalist party that’s allied with Erdogan had raised the possibility that the PKK's imprisoned leader could be granted parole if he renounces violence and disbands his organization. His comments had sparked discussion and speculation about a potential peace effort.

Ozgur Ozel, the leader of Türkiye’s main opposition party, CHP, branded the mayors' removal from office as a “a coup” and accused Erdogan of seizing “municipalities” he could not win in the elections.

Politicians and members of Türkiye’s pro-Kurdish movement have frequently been targeted over alleged links to the PKK, which is considered a terror organization by Türkiye, the US and the European Union.

Legislators have been stripped of their parliamentary seats and mayors removed from office. Several lawmakers as well as thousands of party members have been jailed on terror-related charges since 2016.

“We will not step back from our struggle for democracy, peace and freedom,” Ahmet Turk, the ousted mayor of Mardin, wrote on the social platform X. “We will not allow the usurpation of the people’s will.”