Turkey deports 7,918 foreign terrorists

The Turkish Minister of the Interior, Suleyman Soylu, announced that his country had deported 7,918 foreign “terrorists”.

The Anadolu Agency quoted Soylu saying that the deportees belong to 102 different nationalities and that their deportation came within the framework of the measures taken by Turkey against “foreign terrorists.”

On the other hand, the Turkish Interior Minister said that 48 elements have defected from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) since the beginning of this year, “thanks to efforts to persuade them to cut ties with terrorism.”

Turkey calls people who travelled outside their country and joined the ranks of Daesh “foreign terrorist fighters.”

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Soylu said in November that his country “is not a hotel for Daesh elements who are citizens of other countries,” and that it will deport the organisation’s fighters, who have been arrested in Syria, to their countries.

On 9 October, the Turkish army launched Operation Peace Spring, with the participation of the Free Syrian Army, in the area east of the Euphrates River, northern Syria, to clear it of the armed groups and create a safe zone to ensure the return of the Syrian refugees to their homeland.

On 17 October, the Turkish army suspended the operation after reaching an agreement with the United States stipulating the withdrawal of fighters from the region, followed by an agreement with Russia on the 22nd of the same month.