Turkey And The Issue Of The Return Of The Islamic State – OpEd

One of the strangest and most brutal terrorist groups in contemporary history that has killed thousands of innocent men and women and damaged tens of billions of dollars in regional countries, especially Syria and Iraq, was the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) terrorist group. In fact, no group has so far been able to endanger the security of the region (the Middle East)  and the world so much. With the recent arrest and killing of Abu Bakr Baghdadi in recent month, the terrorist group appears to have lost its stability and meaning. Consequently, the issue of the return of  the ISIS to their countries started. In addition to the security and political sensitivities, this issue has special legal implications, and Turkey has to get rid of them as soon as possible.

Start of Islamic State deportation process from Turkey

In a symbolic move, just two days before Erdogan’s visit to Washington, Turkish political and security officials fired a US-based ISIS inmate. They have also reported that 8 German ISIS citizens and one Danish citizen will be deported from Turkey by Thursday this week.

According to Turkish officials, in addition to delivering about 1205, Turkish troops were also able to arrest 287 fleeing ISIS during Operation Peace Springs in northern Syria and the east of the Euphrates, and  now returning these ISIS members to their countries of origin in Turkey has become a sensitive security and political-legal project.

 A big risk for Turkey

In the face of extreme terrorism and vicious ISIS, the Americans turned to a strange scenario once again, and bin Laden’s film was repeated for Abu Bakr Baghdadi. But the United States did not do anything special in the face of irresponsible ISIS members left in Syria, and in the meantime Turkey agreed to take a risky decision and strategy. In fact, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received a green light from  Donald Trump, US President about the so-called Operation Spring Peace and the attack on PKK satellite institutions in northern Syria. Instead, it was willing to settle the ISIS issue by Turkey. In point of the fact, Ankara has decided to return ISIS prisoners to its country after the United States has explicitly agreed with the decision, on the other hand, apparently Europe is not happy with Turkey’s decision approved by the US, and it believes that the  ISIS Europeans should be punished in the area where they have committed the crime and clearly it tries to refuse to accept their citizens by this way.  Nevertheless, despite  the US agreement, Turkey will work hard to bring ISIS prisoners back to their countries, and Europe will try as much as possible to reassert the Middle East for its own benefit and to refuse the entry of its ISIS terrorist  citizens on the continent.

What is Europe’s reaction?

The European Union has so far shown that it has a particular security attitude towards the issue of extremism and terrorism. In other words, the European Union has taken temporary military action by the United States and within the group known as the ISIS, but it has never been able to achieve a concerted strategy.

In fact,  During the height of the terrorist attacks of the terrorist groups of the 81 countries of the world, the criminal ISIS reached Turkey, Syria and Iraq and now it is feared that the return of these people in the countries of origin will create new problems. For this reason, European countries, especially the United Kingdom, have tried to abolish their right to citizenship by abolishing it. But Turkish officials have stated that Turkey is not an ISIS hotel and they will be returned to their countries.

In fact, European countries have taken irresponsible and irresponsible approaches to the issue of European ISIL members in recent years. Prohibition of their entry into mother countries, transfer of ISIL children to their hometowns, trial of ISIS European members in international courts, treatment of them as a security threat, frequent change of fate of ISIS women seeking return to the country, efforts to prosecute European members ISIS in the countries of activity, its revocation of citizenship by European governments, and the strengthening of the international coalition’s so-called US-led fight against IS in Syria faced strong criticism for their failure to take responsibility for their citizens.

In general, with the news of the killing of Baghdadi and the weakening of the power of the ISIL terrorist group, the group has lost some of its terrorist identity in the region. Certainly such a situation is the best time to punish members of this terrorist group and expel any of them from the Middle East. 

Taking this into account in one hand and getting rid of a the large number of prisoners on the other hand, Turkey has taken the appropriate approach.In other words, the Turkish government, which is the initiator of this plan, should be supported, and in the current situation, the US, Europe and the countries of the region, which consider themselves as the human rights supporter and opposed to any terrorist group, should support the Middle East in some way by punishing and expelling members of the terrorist group ISIS. Otherwise, with the half-way point of punishment and the return of the members of this terrorist group to their countries, the ISIS issue will not be completely eliminated, and the possibility of the terrorist group reuniting or joining to other terrorist groups such as PKK will survive.

*Amin Bagheri is a member of the Iranian International Studies Association in Tehran. His research focuses on Iran and the Middle East.