CHP poses question to gov’t on ISIL militants seeking return via Turkey

ANKARA

AFP photo

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Ankara deputy Şenal Sarıhan has posed a series of questions to the Turkish Interior Ministry on the situation of foreign national Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants who are reportedly entering Turkey from Syria and have been applying to their embassies inside the country to return to their homes, abandoning the ranks of the group. 

In her 14-question document, Sarıhan referred to public reports alleging that since the fall of 2015, around 150 foreign militants fighting for ISIL in Syria have entered Turkey and applied to their countries’ diplomatic posts to be allowed to return to their homelands. 

Stressing that society’s security concerns were growing in the face of terror attacks, including those carried out by ISIL, which had become “systematic,” Sarıhan said the arrival of the group’s militants in Turkey, their presence in the country and the lack of follow ups on them were causing fear and doubts.   

Regarding these developments concerning the ISIL militants, the report initially inquired about the certain number of these kinds of applicants from the group inside Turkey. It later continued by asking how the entrances of these peoples into Turkey were being carried out and what kinds of measures were being taken to prevent such entrances. 

The document also posed questions on whether any probes or prosecutions were initiated against these militants and whether there were any who had been sentenced as a result of these legal actions.