‘Turkey is not hotel for foreign Daesh/ISIS terrorists’

ANKARA

Engaged in a fight against Daesh/ISIS terror group, Turkey on Saturday criticized countries striping citizenship of Daesh/ISIS terrorists to get rid of them.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said foreign countries were taking the easy way out by stripping the citizenships of terrorists.

Soylu's remarks came after Kaoutar S. and Fatima H. were arrested earlier this week in Turkey’s capital Ankara after they illegally entered Turkey and applied to the Netherlands Embassy in Ankara to return to their home country.

However, the Dutch government started the process to strip the citizenship of the two women who were also Moroccan citizens.

The duo had met Daesh/ISIS members through a website, came to Turkey in 2013, and illegally crossed to Syria to marry Daesh/ISIS members. The two women came back to Turkey after their husbands were killed in Syria.

"This is not the process that only the Netherlands follows; England is doing the same,” Soylu told reporters in Ankara.

“So, these people become stateless,” said the Turkish official and added: “We [Turkey] are not a hotel for Daesh/ISIS members of any country.”

Soylu said Turkey sends the terrorists caught in Syria who are foreign nationals to prisons located in the area of Turkey’s Operation Euphrates Shield (2016-17). The terrorists are then sent to their countries of origin, he added.

Pointing out Turkey’s agreements with these countries, Soylu said: "These agreements especially highlight their mutual extradition.”

And he added: “It is not acceptable for us [to hear] 'I stripped them of the citizenship, you take care of it'. This is also irresponsibility.”

Since recognizing Daesh/ISIS as a terrorist group in 2013, Turkey has been attacked by Daesh/ISIS terrorists numerous times, including 10 suicide bombings, seven bombings, and four armed attacks which killed 315 people, including police officers and soldiers, and injured hundreds.

In response to these attacks, Turkey launched anti-terror operations at home and abroad, neutralizing 3,500 Daesh/ISIS terrorists and arresting 5,500.