Turkey has arrested and deported thousands of people suspected of having links to the Islamic State group according to a Turkish interior ministry report entitled “Turkey’s Fight Against DAESH”, published on its website. It claims 4,957 individuals from 99 countries seeking to cross into the conflict zones via Turkey were arrested and deported up to June 2017. 

The report says 804 Russian citizens, 435 Indonesians, 308 Tajiks, 278 Iraqi nationals, 252 Azeris, 245 French citizens, 183 Moroccans, 150 Egyptians, 141 Saudis and 133 German nationals were deported because of their suspected ties to the jihadist group.

More than 4,000 Russians, 2,651 Tajiks, 1,914 Kazakhs, and 1,677 Azeri were among the 53,781 individuals put on the no-entry list.

Ankara has also barred more than 53,000 foreign nationals from entering Turkey – 7,523 Saudis, 4,605 Tunisians, 2,831 Moroccans, 2,622 French citizens, 2,085 Iraqis and 1,519 Belgium citizens.

Turkey listed Islamic State as a terrorist organisation in September 2013.

“The foreign terrorist fighters (FTF) who come to join DAESH from many areas of the world try to reach the conflict zone by passing through Turkey,” the report said.

“These people usually enter Turkey via air through İstanbul (Sabiha Gokcen and Ataturk Airports) and Antalya. Some of them come to Turkey via highways through Greece, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan and Georgia (Edirne, Ardahan, Artvin).”

Suspected members of Islamic State have carried out at least 14 major attacks, including suicide bomb attacks and armed attacks in Turkey which killed more than 300 people, according to the report.

Turkey says Islamic State was behind the attack on a peace rally in Ankara in October 2015 which killed more than 100 people. The group is also held responsibile for the attack on a popular night club in Istanbul on New Year’s Eve which left at least 39 people dead.