Two members of a communist “terrorist” group who stormed a security checkpoint outside Istanbul’s major courtroom were shot dead by Turkish police on Tuesday, inflicting injuries on six other persons, according to officials. Members of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), a fringe communist organization that has carried out sporadic assaults in Turkey since the 1980s.
However, Turkey has started to recover from a decade-long period of violence marked by frequent bombings and other acts connected to Kurdish operators and Islamist fighters. Ankara, the capital, and Istanbul are still on high alert even though those incidents have mostly subsided. Two attackers opened fire inside a Catholic church in Istanbul last month, killing one individual. Islamic State group militants claimed responsibility for the incident.
Two armed ‘terrorists’ are shot dead by police
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya confirmed that an armed attack on the “Caglayan Palace of Justice” in Istanbul, Turkey, resulted in the death of five people, including three police officers. Also, the Minister of the Interior added that a security cordon had been imposed around the court to find out if others were accompanying the perpetrators of the attack and that preliminary investigations had been initiated to find out the motives of the perpetrators of the attack on the Istanbul court.
However, on January 28, Yerlikaya declared that one person had died as a consequence of an armed attack by two masked attackers on the Santa Maria church in Istanbul’s Sariyer neighborhood during a religious rite. As worshipers assembled for a Sunday service, the attack—for which ISIS claimed responsibility—occurred at around 11:40 local time. After the attack, the masked and armed attackers hurriedly left the area.
7 Foreign ISIS Members Are Arrested by Turkey
Turkish counter-terrorism forces have arrested seven foreign fighters from the terrorist ISIS group in a security operation in Istanbul, with their nationalities not disclosed. The Turkish authorities have launched security campaigns against ISIS since 2017, resulting in the arrest of thousands of members, deportation of thousands, and preventing thousands from entering the country. Last week, 54 Turkish and foreign ISIS members were arrested. In Ankara, a security campaign involved the storming of 39 addresses to arrest 39 wanted individuals of ISIS members.
Police nabbed 33 suspects, including 31 Iraqis and two Syrian nationals. The suspects will be handed over to a local repatriation center in Ankara after completing the necessary security measures. ISIS claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks in Türkiye between 2015 and 2017, killing more than 300 and wounding dozens.
Türkiye designed the group as a terrorist in 2013. However, Turkish authorities have arrested a group known as the judicial head, Ramo Muhammed al Hamed, who claimed to be preparing to attack Türkiye. The group was released by the PKK/YPG on condition of going to Jarablus, which was liberated in a 2016 Turkish anti-terror operation. The PKK has been responsible for over 40,000 deaths in its 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye. Ankara has launched three successful anti-terror operations since 2016, preventing a terror corridor and promoting peaceful settlement.
An Ongoing Challenge: Foreigners Linked with ISIS in Turkey
Turkey has been invaded by thousands of foreigners who joined ISIS in Syria and Iraq. A few have been removed from their country. Some have stayed behind, some are almost at the end of their prison terms and some still awaiting trial on accusations linked to terrorism.
Their presence puts Turkey, which is still recovering from the terrible earthquakes that struck in February 2023, in danger both militarily and humanitarian. ISIS has not completely vanished, but it also no longer commands territory in the Levant or attracts travelers from all over the world. At the height of the group’s power, Türkiye’s location was crucial to ISIS finance and logistics, and there are still hazards associated with the high number of people who have ties to the organization.
The defeat of ISIS in 2019 has left countries grappling with dealing with thousands of its recruits from over 100 countries. Türkiye has deported over 9,000 foreigners since 2011, but some cannot be sent home due to countries refusing their nationals or Ankara assessing they would face death, persecution, or torture.
Despite tighter security, some are still being smuggled in from northern Syria. Ankara must rely on a multi-pronged strategy that includes policing and surveillance to track threats and tolerate the integration of individuals who cannot be sent home but stand a chance of being safely absorbed into communities
. The danger posed by ISIS has receded since holding swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria and launching attacks in the heart of Europe. Ankara’s law enforcement and judicial capabilities remain gaps, with gaps in protocols and practices for engaging with foreign partners. The justice system cannot and should not hold ISIS-linked individuals beyond the term of their sentences, and the process can be fraught with reasons such as fear of mistreatment or preference for life among co-religionists in Türkiye.
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