Turkish police this week arrested 119 individuals suspected of being members of the Islamic State jihadist group, ISIS, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya confirmed on Friday.
The detainees were apprehended in 23 of the country’s 81 provinces, including Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir, Yerlikaya shared on X (formerly Twitter).
The Interior Minister, who frequently reports on anti-ISIS activities, also revealed that 65 suspected jihadists were arrested last week.
Since 1 June 2023, Turkish authorities have detained over 3,600 suspects nationwide.
Some of these alleged IS members relocated to Turkey following the collapse of the self-proclaimed jihadist “caliphate” in 2019.
ISIS has been responsible for deadly attacks in Turkey, including the 2017 Istanbul nightclub shooting that claimed 39 lives. It claimed responsibility for an assault on an Istanbul Catholic church during mass in late January, which resulted in one fatality.
Turkish authorities, previously accused of permitting jihadists to freely pass through the country, had announced in late-April the arrest in Istanbul of a man suspected of planning a bomb attack.
