Turkey imposes travel ban on over 12,500 suspected foreign fighters

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey has slapped a travel ban on more than 12,500 suspected foreign fighters, and deported another 1,200, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said, noting that 5,000 people have been put on a blacklist since January, when Ankara strengthened its efforts to stem the flow of jihadists to Syria, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

Most of the fighters were detected on the basis of Turkey’s own intelligence, Çavuşoğlu said Friday, April 10 at a training program for foreign diplomats.

Turkey has long been criticized by the international community for tolerating foreign fighters passing through its territory to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or IS) in Syria. In the second half of 2014, Turkey increased its intelligence cooperation with European countries, imposing travel ban on several thousand foreign individuals.

Ankara describes the foreign fighters issue as “complicated” and has called on EU member states “to stop foreign fighters as they leave their own countries.”

Fighters have traveled to Syria from more than 90 countries, including at least 3,400 from Western states, as well as more than 150 Americans, according to the latest estimates.