"We are not a hotel for Daesh members." Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said on Saturday (November 2nd) that Turkey would not keep "until the end of time" the foreign prisoners of the Islamic State (IS) organization captured in Syria.
"We will keep them under our control for a while, then we will send them back to their countries," he told reporters. The Turkish minister has also accused several European countries, such as the Netherlands and Great Britain, of depriving some of their nationals of their nationality to prevent Ankara from expelling them.
Last month, Turkey launched an offensive in northeastern Syria against a Kurdish militia which it describes as "terrorist", but which spearheaded the fight against IS with the support of Western countries.
Jihadists escaped
As part of this incursion, halted after the signing of agreements with the United States and Russia, Turkish forces seized IS members who had been taken prisoner by Kurdish fighters.
According to several countries, like the United States, other IS prisoners have escaped from prison in Syria taking advantage of the chaos caused by the Turkish offensive. Ankara regularly calls on European countries to take back their nationals who have joined the ranks of the IS in Syria, but they are reluctant to recover them, especially for security reasons.
According to the French authorities, between 400 and 500 French nationals are in northeastern Syria, including some 60 combatants.
With AFP and Reuters