Istanbul – Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu on Wednesday told other countries to take back their nationals, who are Islamic State militants currently being held in Turkey.
“If we are going to fight terrorism together, then sorry, everyone has to take care of their own terrorists,’’ Soylu said in the south-eastern city of Van.
Turkey is not a hotel for foreign Islamic State militants, Soylu said.
Turkey started deporting foreign Islamic State fighters this week.
Germany and the Netherlands had agreed to the repatriation of Islamic State terrorists, their partners and children, Soylu said, adding that Ankara expects the same constructive attitude from other states.
According to the German government, Turkey on Friday plans to deport two German women linked to Islamic State and who had escaped from a camp in Syria’s Ain Issa town.
A family of seven from the northern German city of Hildesheim and belonging to the Salafist movement are to be returned on Thursday.
During a visit to North Macedonia on Wednesday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Germany had been holding an intensive dialogue with the Turkish authorities about the repatriation of Germans associated with Islamic State.
The priority was to establish the citizenship of those involved and to obtain information about their involvement with IS so they could be brought to justice in Germany, he said.
Ankara sent back one Danish national on Monday while an alleged U.S fighter has been stuck in a buffer zone between the Turkish and Greek borders since Monday.
“We are aware of reports of the detainment of a U.S citizen by Turkish authorities.
Due to privacy considerations we have no further comment, a U.S embassy spokesperson told dpa.
Ankara also plans to send back 11 French Islamic State militants and two Irish fighters, who were captured in Syria, according to state news agency Anadolu.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has said Turkey has 1,149 Islamic State members in its prisons, 737 of whom are foreign nationals.
(dpa/NAN)
