The Washington Post - 12.11.2019

tuesday, november 12 , 2019. the washington post eZ re A

BY KAREEM FAHIM

AND LOVEDAY MORRIS

ISTANBUL — Turkey said Monday
that it has deported an American
citizen and a Danish national sus-
pected of belonging to the Islamic
State militant group, as the
g overnment of President Recep
T ayyip Erdogan began following
through on a pledge to repatriate
foreign-born extremists detained
in Turkey.
An Interior Ministry spokes-
man, Ismail Catakli, did not iden-
tify the American or say where the
person had been sent. Irish, Ger-
man and French nationals de-
tained by Turkey will be deported
in the coming days, h e added.
Thousands of foreigners
flocked to the Islamic State as it
began seizing territory in Iraq and
Syria five years ago. The fate of
many foreign militants who were
detained after the Islamic State
was driven from its last strong-
hold this y ear remains unresolved
because many European states,
citing the threat of attacks at
home, have refused to repatriate
them.
European states have insisted
that the suspected Islamic State
members face trial where they
were captured or have sought to
transfer them to Iraq for prosecu-
tion there. Some countries, i nclud-
ing Britain, have s tripped suspect-
ed militants of their citizenship to
ensure they do not return home.
Last week, Turkey’s interior
minister said the foreign detain-
ees would be sent back to their
countries, even in cases in which
they had lost their citizenship.
“We are not a hotel for anyone’s
Daesh members,” S uleyman S oylu
told reporters, using an Arabic
acronym for the Islamic State,
which is also known as ISIS.
“What am I supposed to do with
your terrorist?”
A State Department spokes-
woman said Monday that the
United States was “aware of re-
ports of the detainment of a U.S.
citizen by Turkish authorities. Due
to privacy considerations, w e have
no further comment.” T urkish m e-
dia reported t hat a U.S. citizen had
been deported to Greece and that
Greek authorities had refused to
receive him.
A spokesman for Germany’s
Foreign Ministry said Turkish au-
thorities had notified Germany
“about a total of 10 German citi-
zens who are about to be deported
in the course of this week.” Ger-
man Interior Minister Horst See-
hofer said citizens could “rest as-
sured” that each case would be
“carefully examined” by German
authorities.
“We will do everything possible
to prevent returnees with connec-
tions to IS from becoming a dan-
ger in G ermany,” h e said in a state-
ment.
The problem of what to do with
foreign-born Islamic State mem-
bers gained urgency after Turkey
launched a military offensive in
northern Syria last month, target-
ing a Kurdish-led militia alliance
holding thousands of suspected
Islamic State militants. Ankara
views the Kurdish fighters in Syria
as terrorists because of their links
to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, o r
PKK, which has waged a decades-
long insurgency in Turkey.
The alliance, known a s the S yri-
an Democratic Forces, h olds about
10,000 suspected Islamic State
members in Syria in about two
dozen facilities — including about
2,000 fighters from around 60
countries, not including Syria and
Iraq, according to Col. Myles B.
Caggins I II, a U.S. military spokes-
man.
Ankara’s offensive immediately
raised fears that security at those
facilities would be compromised.
More than 100 people with alleged
links to the Islamic State escaped
from prisons and d etention camps
after the start of the Turkish oper-
ation, U.S. o fficials said.
Turkey has since faced growing
international pressure to demon-
strate that it is taking decisive
action against the Islamic State.
The pressure intensified last
month when Abu B akr a l-Baghda-
di, the group’s leader, was killed
during a U. S. operation in Syria’s
northern Idlib province — a few
miles from the Turkish border, in a
province ringed by Turkish mili-
tary observation p osts.
Over the past few weeks, Turk-
ish authorities have announced
the capture of hundreds of mili-
tants. More than 1,100 suspected
Islamic State members are being
detained in Turkey, Erdogan said
last week, including members of
Baghdadi’s family.
Turkish officials have begun in-
sisting that Western states take
back their nationals, forcing an
overdue reckoning on the issue of
the Islamic State detainees, ac-

cording to human rights groups.

In a landmark ruling on Mon-

day, a Dutch c ourt decided t hat the

Netherlands government had an

obligation to repatriate 56 Dutch

children held in camps in Syria,

according to Andre Seebregts, a

lawyer who represents dozens of

Dutch children and mothers held

in the camps.

The court found that 23 moth-

ers who had appealed to return to

the Netherlands did not have a

right to come home unless their

return was deemed necessary for

the repatriation of the children,

Seebregts said. Kurdish forces

guarding the camps h ad indicated

that they would not send the chil-

dren without their mothers, he

added.

It was likely that the women

would be arrested as soon as they

arrived in the Netherlands, he

said. “It seems it’s safer for the

Netherlands for these women to

come back i n a controlled environ-

ment than under the radar,” See-

bregts said, adding that there ap-

peared to be no alternative but to

try them a t home because the legal

system in Iraq was “not up to

standard.”

[email protected]

[email protected]

Morris reported from Berlin. luisa

Beck in Berlin and louisa loveluck in

Baghdad contributed to this report.

Turkey deports alleged ISIS members

An American is among

the foreigners being

repatriated, official says

alice Martins for the washington post

Men accused of being Islamic State militants wait in a makeshift

clinic at a prison in Syria guarded by Kurdish forces last month.

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