Ankara, Jan 28 Turkish authorities have detained 100 suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) linked to the Daesh terrorist organisation in the past week, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Tuesday.
The operations, dubbed "Gurz-41" and "Gurz-42," were carried out across 24 provinces, including the capital, Ankara, and Istanbul, Turkey's most populated city, the minister said on social media platform X.
The authorities determined that the suspects were carrying out activities within the organization, providing financial aid to the group and making propaganda for the terrorist organisation on social media, the minister said.
Yerlikaya said the police seized organisational documents and digital materials during the raids, Xinhua news agency reported.
"With our strategy of destroying terrorism at its source, we continue our struggle with determination, (together) with our police, gendarmerie and intelligence units," he said.
Turkish authorities have conducted extensive operations against Daesh cells, known as Gurz operations, resulting in the detention of at least 943 suspects in 2024 alone.
Following the disintegration of the self-proclaimed "caliphate" in 2019, some individuals suspected of being affiliated with Daesh have established a network in Turkey, referred to as the Khorasan Province (Daesh-K). This network is reportedly seeking "new methods" and actively recruiting foreign nationals, as ongoing counterterrorism efforts have posed significant challenges, according to sources within Turkish security.
The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) has successfully disrupted the terrorist group's recruitment initiatives, as well as its efforts to secure funding and logistical support, following a recent operation triggered by a church shooting in Istanbul in January.
Turkish authorities have reported that since June 2023, over 3,600 individuals with suspected connections to the terrorist organisation have been apprehended.
Last year, on December 31, Turkish security forces detained 536 suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) in a nationwide operation that had been underway for the past 12 days, according to the country’s Interior Minister, Ali Yerlikaya.
The operation, named GURZ-34, had been carried out across 57 provinces in coordination with prosecutors, the National Intelligence Organisation, and the police's counter-terrorism unit, Yerlikaya shared on the social media platform X.
Turkey designated IS a terrorist organisation in 2013, blaming it for a spate of deadly attacks in the country. Ankara has conducted counter-terrorism operations domestically and abroad to crack down on its members and activities.
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