The U.S. 2019 TERRORİSM REPORT
Overview: Turkey continued its efforts to defeat terrorist organizations both inside and outside
its borders, including the PKK and ISIS. Turkey remained an active contributor in international
CT fora, including the GCTF.
Turkey is a source and transit country for FTFs seeking to join ISIS and other terrorist groups
fighting in Syria and Iraq. Turkey is an active member of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS,
co-chairs the Defeat-ISIS Coalition FTF Working Group, and continued to provide access to its
airspace and facilities for Coalition CT operations in Iraq and Syria. According to public data, as
of November, Turkey’s “Banned From Entry List” included about 76,000 individuals. Since
2011, Turkey has repatriated more than 7,800 FTFs from more than 100 countries. As part of a
new push to return suspected ISIS members and family members to their home countries,
between mid-November and early-December 2019, the Turkish government deported or denied
entry for more than 70 individuals for alleged terrorism. The Ministry of Interior reported that, as
of December 9, there were 1,174 ISIS members and 115 al-Qa’ida members in Turkish custody.
The PKK continued to conduct terrorist attacks in Turkey and against Turkish interests outside of
Turkey. Turkey’s security forces conducted operations domestically along with military
operations in northern Iraq and northern Syria. International Crisis Group, an NGO, assessed
that, in the first 11 months of the year, 26 civilians, 82 security force members, and 343 PKK
militants were killed in Turkey’s eastern and southeastern provinces in PKK-related incidents.
Detentions and arrests of individuals suspected of aiding or having sympathies toward the PKK,
including some elected politicians, continued in 2019. The government continued to restrict
some freedoms and elements of the country’s rule of law system under broad counterterrorism
legislation. Prosecutors used a broad definition of terrorism and threats to national security to
file criminal charges against and prosecute a broad range of individuals, including journalists,
opposition politicians, activists, and others critical of the government.
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Two Turkish National Intelligence Organization (Milli Istihbarat Teskilatı) officers who were
kidnapped in 2017 by the PKK in northern Iraq, remained missing at year’s end. In July,
attackers presumed to be part of the PKK assassinated a Turkish diplomat in a café in Erbil,
Iraq. As a CT partner of the United States, Turkey received U.S. assistance to address the
terrorist threat posed by the PKK in 2019.
In the aftermath of the July 2016 coup attempt, the Turkish government labeled the movement of
self-exiled Fethullah Gulen as the “Fethullah Terrorist Organization” (“FETO”). “FETO” is not
a designated terrorist organization in the United States. The government continued to detain and
arrest Turkish citizens, as well as foreign citizens resident in Turkey – including U.S. citizens
and locally employed staff at the U.S. Mission to Turkey – for alleged “FETO” or terrorism related links, often on the basis of scant evidence and minimal due process. The government
also regularly sought to extradite Turkish citizens resident abroad on terrorism related charges to
prosecute them at home for alleged links to “FETO.” The government also continued to dismiss
military, security, and civil servants from public office in 2019. Since the 2016 failed coup
attempt, the government has dismissed or suspended more than 130,000 civil servants and
members of the armed forces from public office, arrested or imprisoned more than 80,000
citizens, and closed more than 1,500 NGOs for alleged “FETO” links.
2019 Terrorist Incidents: Several terrorist incidents occurred in 2019:
• On July 5, a roadside bomb struck a car in Reyhanli, killing both passengers and a
bystander. All three were reportedly Syrian citizens.
• On September 12, a roadside bomb struck a bus carrying workers from the Ministry of
Agriculture and Forestry, killing seven and wounding 13 in Diyarbakir province’s Kulp
district. The government blamed the PKK for the attack.
• On September 25, an IED targeting a police transport van exploded in Adana, wounding
five. The government blamed the banned Marxist-Leninist Communist Party for the
attack.
• In October, during Turkey’s military Operation Peace Spring into Syria against the
People’s Protection Units (YPG), 13 civilians in Turkey were killed by cross-border
shelling from Syria; the Turkish government attributed these to the YPG, which Turkey
considers the Syrian arm of the PKK, a designated FTO.
Legislation, Law Enforcement, and Border Security:
Turkey has a broad definition of
terrorism that includes crimes against constitutional order and internal and external security of
the state. The law criminalizes expression that justifies, praises, or incites persons to use
coercion or violent methods used by a terrorist organization. The government regularly invoked
the law to criminalize the exercise of freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and other
human rights. According to the Ministry of Interior, authorities referred more than 10,000 social
media accounts to judicial authorities for alleged terrorist-related propaganda in the first quarter
of the year alone, with more than 3,600 users facing legal action for their social media
activities. Turkey has advanced law enforcement capacity to combat terrorism, and efforts
continue to streamline interagency information sharing.
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The government announced in October that Turkey would take custody of ISIS members and
their families in Turkish-controlled areas within Syria. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that
it would work with countries of origin and international organizations to rehabilitate spouses and
children who had not been involved in crimes and would support efforts by countries of origin to
repatriate, prosecute, and rehabilitate all FTFs in Syria and their families members. Turkey
sometimes deports suspected FTFs without providing advance notice or relevant derogatory
information to the destination countries. Following a November 11 deadline imposed by the
Ministry of Interior for home countries to begin repatriation of their FTF citizens, at least some
FTFs were repatriated over the explicit objections of their home countries.
Countering the Financing of Terrorism: Turkey is a member of the FATF. Its FIU, the
Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK), is a member of the Egmont Group. Turkey is
also a member of the Defeat ISIS Coalition’s CIFG. In December, FATF published a Mutual
Evaluation Report that reviewed Turkey’s compliance with FATF standards and the
effectiveness of Turkey’s AML/CFT system and found serious shortcomings. To address these
issues, MASAK has embarked on an action plan, which FATF will review at the end of the year.
Countering Violent Extremism: The Turkish National Police (TNP) undertakes social
projects, activities with parents, and in-service training for officers and teachers. Programs
prepare medical, community, and religious officials to intervene to undermine terrorist
messaging and to prevent recruitment. The Ministry of Justice implements some rehabilitation
and reintegration programs for convicts and former criminals. The Ministry of Interior claimed
in December that it has been in contact with the family members of more than 5,300 PKK
members in Turkey and abroad and had used these connections to convince more than 600 PKK
members to surrender.
Turkey’s Religious Affairs Presidency (Diyanet) reports that it works to undermine terrorist
messaging by promoting what it sees as an “inclusive” version of Islam. All Hanafi Sunni
imams in Turkey officially must be employees of Diyanet.
The city of Antalya is a member of the SCN.
International and Regional Cooperation: Turkey is a member of the UN, NATO, the CT
Committee for the CoE, and the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, and it co-chairs, with Kuwait
and the Netherlands, the Defeat-ISIS FTF Working Group. Turkey hosted two meetings of the
FTF Working Group in Ankara during the year. Turkey regularly participates in GCTF meetings
and initiatives. Turkey also contributes to the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of
Law, a GCTF-inspired institution, and provides expert support to assist training for judges and
prosecutors handling terrorism cases. Turkey participates in OSCE expert meetings on the
Prevention of Violent Extremism and Radicalization that Lead to Terrorism organized by the
OSCE Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the OSCE Secretariat.
Turkey has bilateral security cooperation agreements with more than 70 countries. The TNP
contributes to CT capacity-building programs of partner countries and offers specialized
international law enforcement training in a variety of sectors, including CT.
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