The arrest of the man accused of being ISIS’s “emir” in Turkey has led to questions about the Turkish authorities’ approach to extremism.
Mahmut Ozden’s arrest in the southern city of Adana on Tuesday halted plans to kidnap Turkish political figures and hit economic targets, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said, adding that he had been receiving orders from Syria and Iraq.
However, the fact that Mr Ozden has been on the security forces’ radar for several years, having first appeared in a 2015 ISIS video threatening Turkey, raised doubts about why he had not been successfully prosecuted earlier. Before Tuesday, he was detained at least four times since 2017.
The release of ISIS suspects after arrest indicated that they are not considered a threat, he said. “Either they are working with Turkish intelligence or the judiciary releases them because they know they shouldn’t be messing with ISIS and its operatives.”
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