Turkey to start extraditing ISIL members Nov 11
ANKARA-Anadolu Agency
Turkey will start extraditing captured ISIL terrorists on Nov. 11 to their home countries, according to Turkey's interior minister.
"PYD[/PKK terror group] releases Daesh terrorists and we capture them," Süleyman Soylu said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL.
His remarks came at an opening ceremony in the capital Ankara.
"We tell Europe that we will send [ISIL terrorists] back to you, and we hopefully start as of Monday [Nov. 11]," Soylu said, adding that they are citizens of European countries.
"They [European countries] say, we revoked their citizenship so you can do whatever you want [with them]," Soylu added.
"Turkey will extradite them no matter what," he stressed.
The issue of the handling of ISIL members and their families detained in Syria -- including foreign members of the terror group -- has been controversial, with Turkey arguing foreign-born terrorists should be repatriated to their countries of origin.
Since Turkey recognized ISIL as a terrorist group in 2013, the Turkish state has been attacked by ISIL 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 the attacks, Turkey launched anti-terror operations at home and abroad, neutralizing 3,500 ISIL terrorists and arresting 5,500.
“Turkey struggles for years for the sake of humanity without making any distinction among terrorist organizations,” Soylu said, referring to two PKK terrorists who were revealed to be on Turkey’s most-wanted list on Nov. 7.
Neutralized in a domestic anti-terror operation in July, two PKK terrorists were revealed to be on Turkey’s most-wanted list, the Interior Ministry said on Nov. 7.
Hejar Celik, codenamed Numan Batman, and İshak Ozcaktu, codenamed Erhan Garzan Porsipi, were among five terrorists neutralized in an air-backed operation in the eastern Diyarbakir province on July 19.
The two terrorists -- listed on the red category naming those most-wanted of the Interior Ministry -- were sought with 4 million Turkish liras ($696,360) bounty on each.
