30,000 arrests in one year over terror charges: Interior Minister

Some 30,167 people have been arrested in over 68,000 operations against terrorist organizations over the course of the last year, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said on Oct. 11.

“We have conducted 68,464 operations against terrorist organizations in one year. Some 40,215 of them were against the [outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party] PKK, 25,818 of them were against [the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization] FETÖ, and the others were against DEASH [the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] and other radical leftist terror organizations,” Soylu said, in an address to governors in the capital Ankara.

“Following these operations 30,167 people were arrested, 2,242 terrorists were neutralized, 1,488 shelters were destroyed, and 515 terrorist actions were blocked before they could be conducted,” he added.

755-kilometer wall on border

Soylu also noted that as a part of security measures taken on its Syrian border, Turkey has built modular concrete walls amounting to 755 kilometers so far.

“In the framework of the rapid border physical security system, modular concrete walls of 755 kilometers in total have been built on the Syrian border,” he said.

“Our governorships have completed 44 kilometers trellis fence systems and 28 kilometers roads,” Soylu added.

101 mayors appointed

Meanwhile, he said that 101 mayors have been appointed by the government, using the authority granted by a state of emergency decree law issued after the 2016 coup attempt. The law allows the Interior Ministry and governors to directly appoint mayors, deputy mayors and local council members if the elected mayor already in the post has been dismissed in terror-related probes.

“An important step that we have taken in regard to counter-terrorism is the appointment of mayoralties that were determined to have relations to terrorist organizations. In this framework, 101 mayoralties were appointed. Eight of those replaced mayors related to FETÖ, while 93 replaced mayors related to the PKK,” Soylu said.