Levent Kenez/Stockholm
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on Monday the detention of 40 suspects in operations conducted against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in eight provinces. This development came shortly after a bloody ISIS attack at a concert hall in Moscow on Friday. Allegations that one of the suspects detained in Moscow received training in Turkey and instructions from a preacher have reignited discussions on the relationship between Turkey and ISIS.
Yerlikaya also reported that since taking office on June 3, 2023, a total of 1,316 operations targeting ISIS have been conducted, resulting in the apprehension of 2,733 suspects. Yerlikaya stated that of the suspects captured, 692 have been arrested and 529 were released under judicial supervision.
It’s not uncommon in Turkey for ISIS militants detained by the police to be arrested and put in pretrial detention.
The rapid release of individuals suspected of affiliation with ISIS continued at an accelerated rate last year compared to 2022. Yerlikaya presented data in parliament indicating this trend in November.
Furthermore, the minister declined to divulge details regarding the number of ISIS suspects convicted or the outcome of the legal proceedings for those who were detained.
Under the influence of the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish judiciary has frequently shown leniency in its approach toward armed jihadist groups, including ISIS, within Turkey.
A survey conducted by Nordic Monitor last October revealed that a significant number of ISIS suspects detained in police operations were subsequently released. For instance, in the western province of Izmir, where 21 ISIS suspects, including foreign nationals, were apprehended on October 30, only three were ultimately arrested.
On October 1, 2023 Turkish authorities in Ordu province released an Iraqi national wanted on terrorism charges and facing an outstanding arrest warrant after a brief period of police detention.
Yerlikaya responded to queries from lawmakers at a parliamentary committee meeting on November 8. In Gaziantep, a southeastern province where ISIS has operated with various cells, police detained 18 ISIS suspects on October 27, 2023, but only four were arrested. Similarly, in Bursa on the same day, police detained seven individuals on suspicion of ISIS terrorism, but only one was remanded in custody pending trial.
Moreover, the Erdogan government continues to classify the number of ISIS convicts as a national security secret. Since 2019 authorities have not disclosed the actual figures of ISIS members currently incarcerated on terrorism charges.
It is believed that this secrecy is aimed at concealing the government’s policy of releasing militants shortly after their detention. This practice has been quietly implemented across the criminal justice system since 2014, with prosecutors and judges allegedly receiving directives to adopt a lenient stance toward radical groups associated with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Eager to announce how many ISIS militants have been detained, the authorities are not so keen to reveal how many of them have been arrested. It is not known how many ISIS terrorists were actually released from detention centers and prisons because the government has never announced the figure. However, it is estimated that thousands of ISIS militants were let go after detention based on statistics provided by government officials at various times. The criminal justice system in Turkey, under the strict control of the Islamist government, has systematically failed to jail ISIS militants. Nordic Monitor has published multiple reports based on confidential documents and whistleblower accounts showing how Turkish intelligence worked closely with ISIS and al-Qaeda militants to promote the Erdogan government’s political agenda as well as a secret intelligence document from Turkey’s Security Directorate General confirming that ISIS militants were released from Turkish prisons after short periods of pretrial detention.
Moreover, Turkey’s most wanted list includes few ISIS suspects, while many critics who have nothing to do with terrorism are included on the list of fugitives, yet another sign of how the government is not really interested in cracking down on ISIS. There are only 84 alleged ISIS members out of the 1,304 people named on the list, amounting roughly 6 percent of the total wanted. Since its creation, the list never included Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the former leader of ISIS who was killed by a US raid in October 2019, a few kilometers from the Turkish border in northern Syria, despite the fact that ISIS has killed more than 200 civilians in Turkey and abroad and several soldiers, including two who were burnt alive, and carried out a car bomb attack against the Turkish police. Similarly, al-Baghdadi’s successor, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, was not listed as wanted.
The release of ISIS members in Turkey is also a global concern. Former interior minister Süleyman Soylu revealed in February 2023 that the government has repatriated 1,126 ISIS militants of European origin back to Europe in the last five years. Several ISIS members who have been involved in terrorist activities in Europe have somehow passed through Turkey or lived in Turkey for some time.
Nordic Monitor also published an article detailing how the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) terrorist organization has reportedly used Turkey for the transit of fighters, logistics and target identification after ISIS suspects involved in an attack on the Church of Santa Maria (Meryem Ana Doğuş Kilisesi) in Istanbul’s Sarıyer district on January 28, 2024. This information is based on reports from the United Nations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Turkish judicial documents.
