Turkey ‘To Send Back’ ISIL Prisoners Even If Citizenships Revoked
Turkey will send captured ISIL members back to their countries, even if their citizenships have been revoked, Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu has said.
Soylu on Monday hit out at European countries, saying they were creating “a new form of international law” by demanding that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) prisoners be tried where they were caught.
He said Turkey had nearly 1,200 foreign members of ISIL in custody and had captured 287 during its recent operation in northeast Syria aimed at clearing the border region from Kurdish fighters it considers “terrorists”.
“We will send back those in our hands, but the world has come up with a new method now: revoking their citizenships,” Soylu said.
“They are saying they should be tried where they have been caught. This is a new form of international law, I guess.”
“It is not possible to accept this. We will send back Daesh [ISIL] members in our hands to their own countries whether they revoke their citizenships or not,” he said.
